1.Keberhasilan Pemulihan dalam Komuniti dan faktor berkaitan dengannya dalam kalangan kanak-kanak kurang upaya di Pantai Timur Semenanjung Malaysia (Outcome of Community-based Rehabilitation and its Associated Factors among Children with Disability in East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia)
NURUL ANISAH JAAFAR ; NOR AZLIN MOHD NORDIN ; SYED MOHAMED ALJUNID
Malaysian Journal of Health Sciences 2021;19(No.1):177-185
Children with disability require comprehensive and continuous rehabilitation. Community-based rehabilitation (CBR)
was developed to fulfil this need and has benefited children of various ages both in the rural and urban societies. In
Malaysia, the government largely fund rehabilitation of children at the CBR centers. However, to date research data on
the outcome of CBR on children with disability in the country is scarce. This study was intended to determine the
outcome of CBR and its associated factors among children with disability. Outcome of rehabilitation was determined
with regard to changes in activity of daily living ability with the use of the Barthel Index at 6 months post-CBR. Analysed
factors were age, baseline score of the Barthel Index, frequency of attendance in therapy sessions and number of therapy
received. Data was analysed using paired t test, Wilcoxon signed ranks test and Spearman correlation test. A total of 220
children with disability aged 4 to 18 years and 220 caretakers from 29 selected CBR centres in Pahang, Terengganu and
Kelantan participated in this study. The results showed a small increase in the Barthel Index score of the children, with
mean change ± SD equals 0.90 ± 4.54 (p=0.003) following rehabilitation. Attendance to therapy sessions was low, with
<50% attended three quarter or more sessions of the total sessions offered. No analysed factors were found to be
associated with the change in the Barthel Index (p>0.05). As a conclusion, the outcome gained through CBR is too small
for the duration of rehabilitation implemented. The delivery of CBR program need to be reviewed and enhanced to
improve its effectiveness on children with disability.