SUMMARY Introduction: Chemotherapy is the most common form of treatment among cancer patients. It is also known to cause many physical and psychological side-effects. Objective: This study developed, implemented and evaluated the outcome of a chemotherapy counseling module among oncology patients by pharmacists based on their psychological effects (depression, anxiety) and selfesteem. Methods: A randomized, single blind, placebo controlled study was conducted among 162 patients undergoing chemotherapy in a government hospital in Malaysia. Intervention: Counseling sessions were conducted using the 'Managing Patients on Chemotherapy' module for oncology patients undergoing chemotherapy at each treatment cycle. Outcome: The outcome of repetitive chemotherapy counseling using the module was determined at baseline, first follow-up, second follow-up and third follow-up. Results: The findings revealed that there was significant improvement in the intervention group as compared to the control group with large effect size on depression (p = 0.001, partial Ƞ 2 = 0.394), anxiety (p = 0.001, partial Ƞ 2 = 0.232) and self-esteem (p = 0.001, partial Ƞ 2 = 0.541). Conclusion: Repetitive counseling using the ‘Managing Patients on Chemotherapy’ module was found to be effective in improving psychological effects and self-esteem among patients undergoing chemotherapy.
Drug Therapy ; Neoplasms

Introduction: The 12- item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) has been translated into many languages and widely used in different settings and countries. Its reliability and psychometric properties were extensively studied in many population groups which suggested that it measures psychological distress in multidimensional construct. Objective: The objective of this study was to assess the reliability and factor structure of the Bahasa Malaysia version of the GHQ-12 among university students attending a health program at a Malaysian public university. Method: The cross sectional survey was conducted on 306 undergraduate students aged between 18 to 27 years old who visited the booth set up for mental health screening at a health program. The screening was conducted using a self-administered, validated Bahasa Malaysia version of GHQ-12 questionnaire. Results: Using exploratory factor analysis, the Bahasa Malaysia version of GHQ-12 was found to have a three factor structures namely depressive symptoms, self-esteem and perceived abilities which accounted for 58% of the item variance. The overall Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of the scale was found to be high (0.84) with each factor having acceptable inter-item consistency ranging from 0.61 to 0.82. Conclusion: The findings of the study show that the Bahasa Malaysia version GHQ-12 is reliable and has good structural characteristics. It can assess a few domains of the psychological status of university students. It also helps in providing more information on the domain which may become a focus target of intervention in the prevention of mental illness.
Quality of Life ; Delivery of Health Care

Background: The awareness and practice of pelvic floor muscle exercise (PFME) in the prevention and reduction of the rate of urinary incontinence among pregnant women was considerably poor, despite the increased prevalence of urinary incontinence during pregnancy across Malaysia. There healthcare providers do not give adequate attention to the potential impact of PFME on urinary incontinence and there is limited local intervention addressed urinary incontinence during pregnancy. The objective of this study was to determine the effectiveness of a newly developed PFME intervention in terms of knowledge, attitude, practice, self-efficacy, and urinary symptoms. Methods: A single-blinded, two-armed, randomized control trial was included pregnant women from 18 to 20 weeks of gestation and was conducted at the Maternity Hospital of Kuala Lumpur. The intervention group received PFME in addition to the usual perinatal care. The data were collected using validated questionnaires at 4 time points: baseline, post-intervention in the early third trimester, late third trimester, and early postnatal period. The intervention effects were analyzed using a generalized estimating equation. Results: The primary analysis included pregnant women who had at least one follow-up; 122 women (71.8%) in the intervention group had significant improvement in knowledge, attitude, practice, and self-efficacy, as well as in the severity of urinary incontinence over time. However, improvement was not observed in self-reported urinary incontinence. Conclusion PFME can be considered an effective initial intervention to provide information about urinary incontinence prevention to pregnant women.

Introduction: The number of cancer cases in Malaysia has increased from 32,000 cases in 2008 with to 37,000 in 2012 (check figures in text). This number is expected to rise to 56,932 by 2025. Cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy experience low to moderate level of self-esteem. Objectives: To determine the self-esteem among oncology patients receiving chemotherapy in selected government state hospitals, Peninsular Malaysia. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted using selfadministered questionnaires. 953 respondents were given questionnaires which included socio-demographic profile, physical effect, depression, anxiety, quality of life and self esteem. Inferential analysis was done by using Independent T-test or Pearson’s Correlation and the level of significance was p<0.05. Multivariate logistic regression was then used to determine the predictors using Statistical Package for Social Sciences software version 22.0 Results: All 953 respondents selected participated in this study. The overall mean self-esteem in this study was 22.67, SD=4.98. The significant predictors of self-esteem where pvalue was <0.05 were age; gender; marital status; working status; anxiety; depression; nausea; anemia; hair loss; skin and nail changes; overall quality of life and psychological domain of quality of life. The finding of this study indicates that predictors of selfesteem among patients undergoing chemotherapy should be taken into account to improve their quality of life. Guidelines on how to manage self-esteem in a chemotherapy patient can be done using this study as the baseline