PAPRSB Institute of Health Sciences

Nosocomial blood stream infection (or nosocomial bacteremia) is a common problem in hospitals worldwide, including Malaysia. A three-year prospective cohort study (October 2003-March 2007) of the incidences, risk factors, and patterns of the microorganisms causing bacteremia was conducted using a validated surveillance form in three intensive care units (ICUs) in Malaysia. Center for Disease Control criteria were used to diagnose bacteremia. Patients were monitored from admission until the end point of study, which was the first detection of bacteremia in the blood in each patient. The frequency of occurrence of bacteremia with clinical symptoms was 10.7% (n=23). Bacteremia was observed to occur within a mean length of stay of 10 days in ICU. The rate of device-related infection was 10.4% per device utilization days with a device utilization rate of 95.9%/1000 patient days. The total number of patient days was 2309 and the period of device utilization was 2211 days. The common bacte...

Several sources of job stress exist. Some of these stressors are intrinsic to the job, while some are related to psychosocial and other factors. A cross-sectional study of the prevalence and risk factors of job strain in 84 laboratory technicians in Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM) (response rate 82.4 percent) was conducted between September 2001 and February 2002. A Malay version of the validated Karasek's Job Content Questionnaire was used as the research instrument in this study. There were five scales in the questionnaire. Two scales were used to define job strain, namely: decision latitude and psychological demands. The prevalence of high job strain in laboratory technicians in HUSM was 33.3 percent. Job insecurity (adjusted OR 2.4; 95 percent CI 1.2-5.7), physical exertion (adjusted OR 1.7; 95 percent CI 1.1-2.9), and total psychological stressors (adjusted OR 3.6; 95 percent CI 1.8-7.1) were significantly associated with job strain. A high proportion of laborator...

The objective of this study was to examine the reliability and validity of the Malay version of the 18-item Audit of Diabetes Dependent Quality of Life (the Malay ADDQOL). Patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus who fulfilled the inclusion criteria were systematically selected. The Malay ADDQOL linguistically validated from the 18-item English version ADDQOL was self-administered twice at a 1-week interval. Two hundred eighty-eight respondents were included in the study. Analysis involved checking the feasibility, floor and ceiling effects, internal consistency, test-retest reliability and factor analysis. Item means and standard deviations fulfilled the Likert scale assumptions. The Cronbach's alpha was 0.943 (lower bound of the 95% CI of 0.935) and the intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.81 (95% CI from 0.72 to 0.87). Exploratory one factor analysis showed factor loadings above 0.5 for all the 18 items. The Malay ADDQOL has acceptable linguistic validity. It is feasible, h...

Job dissatisfaction in doctors and teachers is known to have direct consequences on the quality of service and teaching for patients and students respectively. A cross-sectional study to assess dissatisfaction in lecturers of School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) and Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) was undertaken between August 2001 and May 2002. The original English version of the Job Content Questionnaire (CQ) version 1.7 (revised 1997) by Robert Karasek was self-administered to 73 (response rate 58.4%) and 80 (response rate 41.7%) lecturers in the medical faculties of USM and UKM, respectively. The prevalence of job dissatisfaction in USM and UKM lecturers were 42.6% and 42.9%, respectively; the difference was not significant (p>0.05). Risk factors of job dissatisfaction in USM lecturers were decision authority (p<0.001) and psychological job demand (p<0.001). Significant risk factors of job dissatisfaction in UKM lecturers...

Several studies on job stress have been conducted among nurses, teachers, clerks, lecturers, laboratory technicians, petroleum and automotive workers and the calculated prevalences ranged from 20-35%; associated factors identified include high job demand, ...