The Malaysian population is aging, and the elderly are less healthy than the young. The majority of the elderly remain in their own home, although some choose to live in a pondok and others are institutionalized. The main concern in the care of the elderly is maintaining the quality of life (QOL) up to the last moment. The aim of this study is to determine the effect of living place (home, pondok, or old folks’ home) on QOL of the elderly in Kelantan, Malaysia. Four-hundred seventy-one respondents participated in this cross-sectional study. Participants age 60 years old and above were selected conveniently and the WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire was administered by face to face interview to measure quality of life. Multivariate analysis of variance was applied to detect the impacts and p-value < 0.05 was considered significant. Significant differences in mean score of physical (p = 0.011), psychological (p < 0.001), social (p < 0.001), and environmental (p = 0.001) aspects of QOL were detected among participants living at home, in a pondok, and in an old folks’ home. The elderly living in their own home had the highest scores in the physical, social, and environmental domains. Those living in a pondok scored highest in the psychological domain. The elderly living in an old folks’ home had the lowest scores in all domains. A significant effect of living place on QOL of the elderly was detected (p < 0.001) and there was a significant effect of living place on QOL after medical illness and age were controlled (p < 0.001,). Conclusion: Living place had a significant effect on QOL of the elderly, with best QOL for own home living elderly. We recommend elderly should remain in their own home till the end of their life.
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Introduction: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the leading cancers in Malaysia where new cases are increasing every year. The aim of this study was to test the reliability and validity of a newly developed questionnaire on knowledge, attitude and dietary practices (KAP) related to CRC for the Malay population. Methods: The respondents were conveniently selected among visitors attending an outpatient clinic in a tertiary hospital. We excluded those with any cancers, chronic diseases and those that were illiterate. The exploratory factor and reliability analyses were conducted. Results: A total of 108 respondents were recruited of which 67.7% were males and the mean age was 54.59 years (standard deviation 8.93). The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy values for KAP were 0.64, 0.66 and 0.67, respectively (P < 0.001). The 17 items of knowledge formed five domains with loading factors ranging from 0.54–0.89. The six items of attitude formed two domains with loading factors ranging from 0.64–0.80 and the 15 practices had four domains with loading factors ranging from 0.52–0.83. The total variances explained for each KAP were 61.02%, 56.41% and 53.12%, respectively. The internal consistency Cronbach alpha values on KAP were 0.61, 0.60 and 0.70, respectively. Conclusion: The final questionnaire is suitable for measuring KAP related to CRC among the Malay population.