This study aimed to determine the prevalence, symptoms, and associated factors of chronic constip... more This study aimed to determine the prevalence, symptoms, and associated factors of chronic constipation among older adults in the North-East of Peninsular Malaysia. A cross-sectional study was conducted among older patients from four health clinics. A total of 400 older patients participated, with a mean age of 68.7 ( SD = 6.4) years. The prevalence of chronic constipation was 14.8%. The highest symptom reported was the inability to pass stool (98.3%). Chronic constipation was significantly associated with older age (OR = 2.97; 95% CI [1.17, 7.54]; p = .022), inadequate plain water intake per day (OR = 2.13; 95% CI [1.13, 4.02]; p = .020), hypertension (OR = 2.22; 95% CI [1.07, 4.61]; p = .033), and hyperlipidemia (OR = 2.52; 95% CI [1.24, 5.11]; p = .010). Identification of chronic constipation should be done as part of routine clinic visits, especially for older patients with cardiovascular disease.
This paper explores the knowledge and attitude of women and men in decision making on pap smear s... more This paper explores the knowledge and attitude of women and men in decision making on pap smear screening. This qualitative study recruited 52 respondents with 44 women and 8 men, using the purposive sampling with snowballing technique through indepth interviews. This study demonstrates several key findings: Female respondents have better knowledge compared to male. Most of the women perceived that pap smear screening is beneficial and important, but to proceed with the test is still doubtful. Male respondents were supportive in terms of sending their spouses to the health facilities or give more freedom to their wives to choose and making decision on their own health due to prominent reason that women know best on their own health. It is expected that the results from this study will provide useful guideline for healthcare providers to prepare any action/intervention to provide an extensive education to improve people-s knowledge and attitude towards pap smear.
Chronic constipation is a common symptom-based disorder among the elderly. It may affect the qual... more Chronic constipation is a common symptom-based disorder among the elderly. It may affect the quality of life (QoL). However, due to a lack of questionnaire that focuses on the elderly group, this effect is not well understood. This study aimed to develop the Elderly-Constipation Impact Scale (E-CIS) to measure constipation-specific QoL in the elderly with chronic constipation. A pool of items was generated from the findings of the qualitative study, literature review, and expert review. A total of 268 elderly, who experience chronic constipation, from community setting of Kelantan and Terengganu participated in the study to evaluate its reliability and validity: 46 elderly involved in the qualitative study to generate the items, 22 elderly participated in debriefing interview to refine the scale and 200 elderly involved in a cross-sectional study to reduce the items and to determine the scale’s structure. The finding revealed that exploratory factor analysis (EFA) reduced the 40-ite...
Pap smear screening services were introduced in Malaysia late 1960s. Yet the Second and Third Nat... more Pap smear screening services were introduced in Malaysia late 1960s. Yet the Second and Third National Health and Morbidity Surveys reported persistently low uptake by eligible women. Women in the state of Kelantan are still among the lowest to have done pap smear in Malaysia. The aim of this paper is to explore and identify factors affecting health seeking behaviour on pap smear screening among women in Kelantan, Malaysia. Fourty-four women were recruited in this qualitative study using the purposive sampling with snowballing technique. They were interviewed using in-depth interviews. Transcribed materials were analysed using the N-Vivo version 2. It was found that there were several factors shaping women's health seeking behaviour on pap smear screening such as accessibility, attitude towards pap smear, sex of the health provider, support, time and cost. The two most significant factors were knowledge on pap smears and attitude towards pap smears including fear and embarrassme...
The Southeast Asian journal of tropical medicine and public health, 2011
The objectives of this study were to describe the knowledge of sexual and reproductive health amo... more The objectives of this study were to describe the knowledge of sexual and reproductive health among adolescents attending school and to compare the levels of knowledge between males and females and between older and younger groups of adolescents. Across-sectional study was conducted among 1,034 secondary school students using a self administered validated questionnaire. The items with the fewest correct responses included: whether one can get pregnant after a single act of sexual intercourse (30.4%), whether sexual intercourse causes sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) (12.4%) and whether washing the vagina after sexual intercourse prevents pregnancy (17.0%). Their main source of sexual information was friends (64.4%). An independent t-test revealed the mean knowledge score was significantly higher among females than males on items assessing whether the genitalia may be touched freely by family members, females having attained menarche may become pregnant if having sex, whether pre...
The objective of this cross-sectional study was to determine the factors associated with the atti... more The objective of this cross-sectional study was to determine the factors associated with the attitudes toward premarital sexual activities among school-going adolescents in Kelantan, Malaysia. It was conducted among 1032 secondary school students using a self-administered validated questionnaire. Multiple logistic regression revealed that the risk factors for having permissive attitudes toward practice of premarital sexual activities were male students (odds ratio [OR] = 1.83; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.34-2.48), being less religious (OR = 2.02; 95% CI = 1.49-2.73), and younger age group of students (13 to 14 years old; OR = 1.42; 95% CI = 1.05-1.92). Having good knowledge on sexual and reproductive health was a protective factor against permissive sexual attitude (OR = 0.27; 95% CI = 0.20-0.36). In conclusion, male and young adolescents were at risk of having permissive attitudes toward sexual behaviors, but good knowledge on sexual and reproductive health and being more religious may protect them from it.
Asia Pacific Journal of Social Work and Development, 1991
This paper explains the nature and trend of social work education in Malaysia. Particular attenti... more This paper explains the nature and trend of social work education in Malaysia. Particular attention is given to training programmes conducted by the Ministry of National Unity and Community Development (previously known as the Ministry of Social Welfare) and the School of Social Sciences at the Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang. Since social work education is, to some extent, inseparable from
This paper describes the method used to develop the One Stop Crisis Centre (OSCC) Portal, an open... more This paper describes the method used to develop the One Stop Crisis Centre (OSCC) Portal, an open-source web-based electronic patient record system (EPR) for the One Stop Crisis Center, Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM) in Kelantan, Malaysia. Features and functionalities of the system are presented to demonstrate the workflow. Use of the OSCC Portal improved data integration and data communication and contributed to improvements in care management. With implementation of the OSCC portal, improved coordination between disciplines and standardisation of data in HUSM were noticed. It is expected that this will in turn result in improved data confidentiality and data integrity. The collected data will also be useful for quality assessment and research. Other low-resource centers with limited computer hardware and access to open-source software could benefit from this endeavour.
This study aimed to determine the prevalence, symptoms, and associated factors of chronic constip... more This study aimed to determine the prevalence, symptoms, and associated factors of chronic constipation among older adults in the North-East of Peninsular Malaysia. A cross-sectional study was conducted among older patients from four health clinics. A total of 400 older patients participated, with a mean age of 68.7 ( SD = 6.4) years. The prevalence of chronic constipation was 14.8%. The highest symptom reported was the inability to pass stool (98.3%). Chronic constipation was significantly associated with older age (OR = 2.97; 95% CI [1.17, 7.54]; p = .022), inadequate plain water intake per day (OR = 2.13; 95% CI [1.13, 4.02]; p = .020), hypertension (OR = 2.22; 95% CI [1.07, 4.61]; p = .033), and hyperlipidemia (OR = 2.52; 95% CI [1.24, 5.11]; p = .010). Identification of chronic constipation should be done as part of routine clinic visits, especially for older patients with cardiovascular disease.
This paper explores the knowledge and attitude of women and men in decision making on pap smear s... more This paper explores the knowledge and attitude of women and men in decision making on pap smear screening. This qualitative study recruited 52 respondents with 44 women and 8 men, using the purposive sampling with snowballing technique through indepth interviews. This study demonstrates several key findings: Female respondents have better knowledge compared to male. Most of the women perceived that pap smear screening is beneficial and important, but to proceed with the test is still doubtful. Male respondents were supportive in terms of sending their spouses to the health facilities or give more freedom to their wives to choose and making decision on their own health due to prominent reason that women know best on their own health. It is expected that the results from this study will provide useful guideline for healthcare providers to prepare any action/intervention to provide an extensive education to improve people-s knowledge and attitude towards pap smear.
Chronic constipation is a common symptom-based disorder among the elderly. It may affect the qual... more Chronic constipation is a common symptom-based disorder among the elderly. It may affect the quality of life (QoL). However, due to a lack of questionnaire that focuses on the elderly group, this effect is not well understood. This study aimed to develop the Elderly-Constipation Impact Scale (E-CIS) to measure constipation-specific QoL in the elderly with chronic constipation. A pool of items was generated from the findings of the qualitative study, literature review, and expert review. A total of 268 elderly, who experience chronic constipation, from community setting of Kelantan and Terengganu participated in the study to evaluate its reliability and validity: 46 elderly involved in the qualitative study to generate the items, 22 elderly participated in debriefing interview to refine the scale and 200 elderly involved in a cross-sectional study to reduce the items and to determine the scale’s structure. The finding revealed that exploratory factor analysis (EFA) reduced the 40-ite...
Pap smear screening services were introduced in Malaysia late 1960s. Yet the Second and Third Nat... more Pap smear screening services were introduced in Malaysia late 1960s. Yet the Second and Third National Health and Morbidity Surveys reported persistently low uptake by eligible women. Women in the state of Kelantan are still among the lowest to have done pap smear in Malaysia. The aim of this paper is to explore and identify factors affecting health seeking behaviour on pap smear screening among women in Kelantan, Malaysia. Fourty-four women were recruited in this qualitative study using the purposive sampling with snowballing technique. They were interviewed using in-depth interviews. Transcribed materials were analysed using the N-Vivo version 2. It was found that there were several factors shaping women's health seeking behaviour on pap smear screening such as accessibility, attitude towards pap smear, sex of the health provider, support, time and cost. The two most significant factors were knowledge on pap smears and attitude towards pap smears including fear and embarrassme...
The Southeast Asian journal of tropical medicine and public health, 2011
The objectives of this study were to describe the knowledge of sexual and reproductive health amo... more The objectives of this study were to describe the knowledge of sexual and reproductive health among adolescents attending school and to compare the levels of knowledge between males and females and between older and younger groups of adolescents. Across-sectional study was conducted among 1,034 secondary school students using a self administered validated questionnaire. The items with the fewest correct responses included: whether one can get pregnant after a single act of sexual intercourse (30.4%), whether sexual intercourse causes sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) (12.4%) and whether washing the vagina after sexual intercourse prevents pregnancy (17.0%). Their main source of sexual information was friends (64.4%). An independent t-test revealed the mean knowledge score was significantly higher among females than males on items assessing whether the genitalia may be touched freely by family members, females having attained menarche may become pregnant if having sex, whether pre...
The objective of this cross-sectional study was to determine the factors associated with the atti... more The objective of this cross-sectional study was to determine the factors associated with the attitudes toward premarital sexual activities among school-going adolescents in Kelantan, Malaysia. It was conducted among 1032 secondary school students using a self-administered validated questionnaire. Multiple logistic regression revealed that the risk factors for having permissive attitudes toward practice of premarital sexual activities were male students (odds ratio [OR] = 1.83; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.34-2.48), being less religious (OR = 2.02; 95% CI = 1.49-2.73), and younger age group of students (13 to 14 years old; OR = 1.42; 95% CI = 1.05-1.92). Having good knowledge on sexual and reproductive health was a protective factor against permissive sexual attitude (OR = 0.27; 95% CI = 0.20-0.36). In conclusion, male and young adolescents were at risk of having permissive attitudes toward sexual behaviors, but good knowledge on sexual and reproductive health and being more religious may protect them from it.
Asia Pacific Journal of Social Work and Development, 1991
This paper explains the nature and trend of social work education in Malaysia. Particular attenti... more This paper explains the nature and trend of social work education in Malaysia. Particular attention is given to training programmes conducted by the Ministry of National Unity and Community Development (previously known as the Ministry of Social Welfare) and the School of Social Sciences at the Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang. Since social work education is, to some extent, inseparable from
This paper describes the method used to develop the One Stop Crisis Centre (OSCC) Portal, an open... more This paper describes the method used to develop the One Stop Crisis Centre (OSCC) Portal, an open-source web-based electronic patient record system (EPR) for the One Stop Crisis Center, Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM) in Kelantan, Malaysia. Features and functionalities of the system are presented to demonstrate the workflow. Use of the OSCC Portal improved data integration and data communication and contributed to improvements in care management. With implementation of the OSCC portal, improved coordination between disciplines and standardisation of data in HUSM were noticed. It is expected that this will in turn result in improved data confidentiality and data integrity. The collected data will also be useful for quality assessment and research. Other low-resource centers with limited computer hardware and access to open-source software could benefit from this endeavour.
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Papers by Siti Hawa Ali