A self-answered, anonymously completed, nationwide questionnaire survey was conducted between June 2002 and May 2003 among Malaysian doctors through post and at medical meetings. Findings based on 116 government and 110 private doctors who satisfactorily completed the forms (effective respondent rate: 30.1%) showed that more than 70% of government and private doctors claimed familiarity with asthma CPGs but proportionately more private doctors considered them "unworkable" and were reluctant to adopt them in their practice setting, quoting cost as the primary reason. Between those who frequently adopted the CPGs and those who did not, there was an equally high proportion of inappropriate prescribing. Despite the shortcomings of such a survey, our findings suggest that medicinal cost and practitioner's prescribing practices are important in the acceptance and execution of asthma CPGs recommendations.
private ; Asthma ; appropriateness ; guiding characteristics ; Cost aspects

Objective: This is a scoping review of Malaysian scientific studies on medication adherence among persons with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Methodology: We conducted a bibliographic search of PubMed, Scopus and Google Scholar using the following keywords: “medication adherence,” “drug compliance,” “DMTAC” and “Malaysia.” The search covered all publications up to 31 December 2021. Eligible articles were original studies conducted in Malaysia that measured or quantified medication adherence among persons with T2DM. Results: We identified 64 eligible studies published between 2008 to 2021. Most studies included patients with T2DM in ambulatory facilities. Five studies were qualitative research. The quantitative research publications included clinical trials, and cross-sectional, validation, retrospective and prospective cohort studies. Thirty-eight studies used medication adherence scales. The Morisky Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS-8, used in 20 studies) and Malaysian Medication Adherence Scale (MALMAS, used in 6 studies) were the most commonly used tools. There were 6 validation studies with 4 medication adherence scales. A meta-analysis of 10 studies using MMAS-8 or MALMAS revealed that the pooled prevalence of low medication adherence is 34.2% (95% CI: 27.4 to 41.2, random effects model). Eighteen publications evaluated various aspects of the Diabetes Medication Therapy Adherence Clinics (DMTAC). Conclusion This scoping review documented extensive research on medication adherence among persons with diabetes in Malaysia. The quantitative meta-analysis showed a pooled low medication adherence rate.
Diabetes Mellitus ; Medication Adherence ; Malaysia