Caring for stroke survivors is inevitably a burden to caregivers. It is not uncommon for stroke survivors who are discharged from the hospital and found themselves at home without any help and care from the supposed caregivers. However, in instances where there are available and willing caregivers, a sudden and unpredictable task of caring for stroke survivors require the stroke caregivers to apply their coping strategies due to the demanding nature of looking after a survivor. This study aimed to determine coping strategies undertaken by stroke caregivers in caring for stroke survivors. This was an exploratory qualitative study and data was collected from the caregivers of stroke survivor using a semi-structured guided questionnaire. A total of 18 caregivers were included in the study. The data were collected from November 2015 until June 2016 at a selected community rehabilitation centre in Kuching, Sarawak. The qualitative data analysis revealed that the coping strategies undertaken by stroke caregivers include change of role in life, self-motivation, sharing with other people, crying, trying to forget things that happen, hoping survivors will get better, emotion suppression and self-blame. The study highlighted the experiences by the caregivers for caring for stroke patients and focused on the coping strategies undertaken by the caregivers. Better ununderstanding of these experiences does help the service providers to provide better support and resources for caregivers in caring for stroke survivors.

Introduction: A cross-sectional study is used to evaluate the lifestyle factors associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk among healthcare workers in tertiary hospitals in Sarawak, Malaysia. Methods: A questionnaire-based survey using the Simple Lifestyle Indicator Questionnaire (SLIQ) was administered to, and anthropometric measurements were collected from, 494 healthcare workers. Results: Te mean age of the subjects was 32.4±8.4, with a range of 19 to 59 years. Te subjects were from the allied health (45.5%), management and professional (25.1%) and executive (29.4%) felds. Overall, 47.4% of the subjects were of normal weight, 30.2% were overweight, 17.2% were obese and 5.2% were underweight. Te mean number of working hours per week for the subjects was 47.6±14.0 with the highest working hours found among the management and professional group, followed by the executive and allied health groups. Overall, 39.7% of the healthcare workers worked ofce hours, 36.6% worked within the shift system, 20.9% worked ofce hours and were on-call and the remaining 2.8% worked a mixture of ofce hours and shifts. Based on the SLIQ score, 58.1% were classifed as at intermediate risk for CVD, 38.5% were in the healthy category and 3.4% were in the unhealthy category. Factors associated with a healthier lifestyle were being female (Odds Ratio [OR]= 12.1; CI= 3.2- 46.4), professional (mean score= 6.70), in the allied health group (mean score=7.33) and in the normal BMI group (OR= 9.3, CI= 1.8- 47.0). Conclusion: In our study, healthcare workers had an intermediate risk of developing CVD in the future. Tus, there is a need to intervene in the lifestyle factors contributing to CVD.