Background: Pre-existing comorbidities can predict severe disease requiring intensive care unit (ICU) admission among COVID-19 cases. We compared comorbidities, clinical features and other predictive factors between COVID-19 patients requiring ICU admission for intubation/mechanical ventilation and all other COVID-19 cases in Selangor, Malaysia. Methods: Field data collected during the COVID-19 outbreak in Selangor, Malaysia, up to 13 April 2020 were used, comprising socio-demographic characteristics, comorbidities and presenting symptoms of COVID-19 cases. ICU admission was determined from medical records. Multiple logistic regression analysis was performed to identify factors associated with ICU admission requiring intubation/mechanical ventilation among COVID-19 cases. Results: A total of 1287 COVID-19-positive cases were included for analysis. The most common comorbidities were hypertension (15.5%) and diabetes (11.0%). More than one third of cases presented with fever (43.8%) or cough (37.1%). Of the 25 cases that required intubation/mechanical ventilation, 68.0% had hypertension, 88.0% had fever, 40.0% had dyspnoea and 44.0% were lethargic. Multivariate regression showed that cases that required intubation/mechanical ventilation had significantly higher odds of being older (aged 360 years) [adjusted odds ratio (aOR) = 3.9] and having hypertension (aOR = 5.7), fever (aOR = 9.8), dyspnoea (aOR = 9.6) or lethargy (aOR = 7.9) than cases that did not require intubation/mechanical ventilation. Conclusion: The COVID-19 cases in Selangor, Malaysia requiring intubation/mechanical ventilation were significantly older, with a higher proportion of hypertension and symptoms of fever, dyspnoea and lethargy. These risk factors have been reported previously for severe COVID-19 cases, and highlight the role that ageing and underlying comorbidities play in severe outcomes to respiratory disease.

Introduction: Community health workers/volunteers (CHW) are health workers who are trained but do not possess a formal professional certificate. They are members of the community who live and work in that particular community. This study aimed to determine factors associated with not performing health screening activities by volunteers under KOSPEN; a community-based intervention programme, initiated by Ministry of Health Malaysia in October 2013. Methods: Data from the “Evaluation of the implementation of KOSPEN programme in Malaysia 2016” was used,a cross-sectional study which was carried out in randomly selected KOSPEN localities throughout Malaysia. The response rate was 94.9%. A pre-tested, self-administered questionnaire was used. Descriptive statistics andlogistic regression analysis was applied using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20. Results: 700 volunteers were included in this study. Majority were female (65.7%), aged 50-59 years (30.9%), had secondary education (65.3%), employed (55.7%.) and married (80.4%). Several issues were identified by the volunteers; funding (47.2%), module content and comprehensibility (11.4% respectively), submitting returns (17%). Multivariate logistic regression showed that volunteers who never attended training (aOR 2.79; 95% CI:1.66, 4.67) and who felt the content of the training module was inadequate (aOR 2.693; 95% CI: 1.46, 4.98) were more likely did not perform screening activities in the community. Conclusion Volunteers who were not trained and those who felt the content of the training module was inadequate did not carry out screening activities. These findings will be useful for stakeholders to make improvements to the programme for a more successful implementation.