Malnutrition is associated with childhood diseases such as diarrhea or other severe illness. Children who suffer from repeated episodes of diarrhea are more likely to suffer from malnutrition. In addition, the source of drinking water is a very important factor affecting the nutritional status. The objective of this study was to find out the prevalence of malnutrition condition among children aged 3 to 5 years old and the factors associated with it. A cross sectional study using simple random sampling was conducted among 220 children aged 3 to 5 years old from four kindergartens in Baghdad city, Iraq. Nutritional assessment was carried out using the indicator weight-for-age z-score based on World Health Organization cut off points. Acute malnutrition was found in 18.2 % of the respondents. In this study 65 % of the respondents used tap water to drink as compared to 35 % who used sterilized bottles as source of drinking water. The environmental factors mainly the source of drinking water was significantly associated with child nutritional status (p=0.034). The prevalence of diarrhea and admissions to the hospital due to diarrhea were also significantly associated with malnutrition (p < 0.01, p <0.01) respectively. In conclusion, the effect of diarrhea on child nutritional status is very important and till now considered the major cause of child malnutrition. Shortage of safe drinking water in Iraq can lead to an increase in diarrhea cases and eventually leading to child malnutrition.

Pregnant women are at higher risk of transmitting the infections to their foetus. This prompted the “Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) Program” in Malaysia since 1998. The objective of this cross sectional study was to determine the knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) of pregnant mothers in the west of Sabah towards HIV/AIDS and its influencing factors. Data were obtained through self administered questionnaires. Results showed that only 32.2% of the respondents have good knowledge compared to 67.8% who had poor knowledge (p <0.001) of HIV/AIDS. Majority of them (56.4%) have good attitude and practice towards HIV/AIDS compared to the remaining poor attitude and practice respondent (44.4%) (p<0.001). Radio/TV (90.2%) and reading materials (83.9%) were the main sources of obtaining information. Main influencing factors for having good knowledge towards HIV/AIDS were women aged < 30 years old, have high education, who perceived on having good knowledge towards HIV/AIDS and received health education from health staffs. Mean while, influencing factors for having good attitude and practice towards HIV/AIDS were women having high education and received health education from health staffs. Therefore, implementation of PMCTC must be reviewed regularly to ensure the program reach its targets.

Health services are considered to be of good quality if customers’ expectations and perceptions are well balanced. Determinants confirming customers’ expectations will lead to satisfaction, while factors disconfirming it will result in customers’ dissatisfaction, reduced compliance to physicians’ treatment and deterioration in overall disease management. A cross-sectional comparative study was carried out from September till October 2008 to determine population satisfaction with health services provided by the public health clinics in Selangor. A total of 3840 respondents from the urban Health Clinics (HCs) and 4768 respondents from rural HCs were selected applying multi-stage random sampling from 54 HCs in nine districts from Selangor. Self-administrated questionnaires formulated by adopting SERVQUAL method based on modified five dimensions plus four dimensions of Clinics Corporation were used . Results showed the proportion of satisfaction among the population towards services provided by the public HCs was high at 86.1%. From X2 bivariate analysis; satisfied respondents were significantly from Indian and Chinese ethnic community more than the Malays, more among the less educated, the older age category (more than 33 years old) and males’ were slightly more satisfied than females. Patients who visited HCs more than three times were more satisfied than one time visitors. Occupation, marital status and HCs urban-rural locality were not significantly associated with customers’ satisfaction level. All dimensions showed high satisfaction level especially on treatment outcome, except on health care workers (HCWs) caring and professionalism domains. Working as a team was slightly higher in the urban areas compared to rural area. Overall, the SERVQUAL score of all dimensions were higher among the urban respondents albeit not significant. Clients’ perceptions were generally higher than expectations reflecting the high satisfactions among clients at 86.1%. Much improvement needs to be put into training HCWs to be more caring and adapting a professional attitude towards clients. Clients’ satisfactions in the urban and rural HCs were almost equal and did not reflect a decrease of health services priority in the rural areas.