ABSTRACT
Health care systems play a vital role in providing health services and in optimising the population’s health of each nation. The Malaysian health care system primarily consists of the public and private health services. One of the prominent private health care services offered in the General Practitioner’s (GP) Clinic. Despite the prominent role GPs play in the health care system in this country, little is known about their practices, the issues and challenges faced by GPs in this country. The objective of this study was to describe the current GP practice operations in Malaysia in terms of its general operations, financial expenditure and revenue, market competitiveness and laboratory services offered by the clinics. A cross-sectional survey design was used in this study. The study sample comprised of 1800 GPs throughout the West of Malaysia selected using convenient sampling technique. This study provides the general description of the GP operations in terms of the nature of business, operations hours, and number of patients, the third party administrator and managed care organisation linkages, financial expenditure, market competitiveness and laboratory services. The findings of the study reveal that the expenditure of managing GP services has increased over the years due to the changes in policies as well as the involvement of third party administrators in the healthcare system despite it playing an instrumental role in complimenting the healthcare services for the public at large.
ABSTRACT
Breast cancer is ranked number one from the ten most frequent cancers in female, Peninsular Malaysia. Various studies provide negative evidence on malignancies and one of the end results is impaired quality of life (QOL). Studies show lifestyle approaches are key factors in enhancing the QOL among cancer survivors. The purpose of this study is to describe the lifestyle practices (LP) among breast cancer survivors (BCS) which consist of dietary intake, exercise habits, and stress management and to determine whether these practices have influence on the QOL among Malaysian BCS. This study adopts a cross-sectional study design using a self-administered questionnaire. A total of 280 BCS from public and private hospitals throughout Peninsular Malaysia had participated. The questionnaire covers QOL and LP items which consist of dietary intake (consumption of high-fat food, high-fibre food, fruits and vegetables), exercise habits, and stress management. Descriptive statistics and one-way ANOVA were used to determine the relationship between LP and QOL. Mean age of the study sample was at 41 (SD=7.37). Majority of them were Malay (74%), 53% were diagnosed with breast cancer between 1 to 2 years whereas 54% were presented with stage 2 at diagnosis. There was a statistically significant difference (p< 0.05) in the overall quality of life score for the three LP groups (Better, No change, Worse). Malaysians’ BCS reported an improvement in LP and the enhancement in LP may result to better QOL outcomes.
Subject(s)
Life Style , Quality of Life , Breast Neoplasms , SurvivorsABSTRACT
This study investigates work engagement of employed breast cancer survivors in comparison to unmatched control samples of healthy working women without cancer and any other chronic diseases from the general population. A case-control study design using unmatched controls was adopted in this study. The case comprised of 80 female breast cancer survivors who have returned to full-time employment selected using purposive sampling technique. Meanwhile, controls were 88 healthy female working women in full time paid employment, selected using quota sampling. Questionnaire covering socio-demographic characteristics and self-rated work engagement measured using Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) was distributed to the cancer survivors through face-to-face meeting during their hospital visits. For the healthy controls the questionnaires were distributed using drop-and-collect method through the human resource personnel of the participating organization. The results revealed, after controlling for age, marital status, ethnic group and tenure with organization, no significant differences in the overall work engagement was found between the breast cancer survivors [mean (SD) = 4.66 (0.92)] and the healthy controls [mean (SD) = 4.75 (0.85)]; F(1, 163) =1.70. In comparison to the work engagement domains, only the Vigor domain was found to be significantly lower for the survivors, survivors [F (1, 163) =14.94; p<.001] compared to healthy controls. However, the effect size was small (2= 0.004). No significant difference was found in the mean absorption and dedication domain scores. The findings suggest, except for vigor domain, work engagement of breast cancer survivors who have returned to work do not differ from individuals without cancer.