Purpose: To compare access to medicines in children living in poor households (income of USD1/person/day) between urbanised Klang Valley and rural East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Methods: A semi-structured interview was conducted with caregivers to determine demographics, access to medicines, knowledge, attitude and practice of parents in obtaining medicines for children. Results: There was no significant difference socio-demographically between poor households in Klang Valley (N = 58) and East Coast (N = 40). The study found that access to medicine for children (N = 325) in the households was adequate, where all households that reported illness in the children over the last 1 month and the last 6 month periods, obtained medicines and 99 % of the children were fully immunized. Qualitative analysis showed that poor households face several barriers in accessing medicines for their children such as financial, transportation, physical and attitudinal. Conclusion: Access to medicines for children living in poor households in both areas were similar and adequate. However, barriers to access remain and further studies are required. � Pharmacotherapy Group, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Benin, Benin City, 300001 Nigeria. All rights reserved.

Purpose: To investigate the incidence, characteristics and risk factors of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) in hospitalized children in a Malaysian hospital. Methods: Patients admitted to the Paediatric Department of Hospital Ampang in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia were monitored for occurrence of ADRs by spontaneous reporting or daily review of their case notes. Characteristics of ADRs were categorised and ADRs were analysed for causality, severity and preventability. Multivariate analyses were performed to determine associations between certain selected risk factors and ADR occurrence. Results: In 423 paediatric patients admitted in Hospital Ampang (436 admissions), the ADR incidence rate was 8.0% (95% CI, 5 - 11%). The most commonly involved medications were systemic antibacterial drugs (77.4%). About 61.3% of the ADRs were of probable causality and 12.9% were definitely preventable. No severe ADRs were detected, with 41.9% being moderate and 58.1% being mild, based on a severity scale. Younger children (OR = 3.387, 95% CI, 1.377, 8.334) and the number of systemic antibacterial drugs given (OR = 1.469, 95% CI 1.201, 1.798) were potential risk factors associated with ADRs. Conclusion: ADRs occur at a significant rate in the Malaysian children admitted to the hospital studied. Further studies are needed to provide drug safety data for the paediatric population in Malaysia. � 2018 Ithnin M, Rani MDM, Latif ZA, Kani P, Syaiful A, Mohd TAMT, Aripin KNN.

Studies assessing the level of knowledge, attitude, and practice on non-communicable diseases (NCDs) among the general population are still insufficient in literature. This study aimed to assess the baseline levels of knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) of the adult population in Malaysian urban area towards NCDs. A thoroughly designed and validated KAP questionnaire was administered, and the responses were coded and analysed. The survey involved 207 respondents from the urban area of Ampangan, Negeri Sembilan with an average age of respondents is 53.52 ± 17.86 years. Seventy-six (36.7%) were male and 131 (63.3%) were female. Majority of the respondents had good knowledge (81.2%) and attitude (53.1%) towards NCDs. However, only 8.7% of the respondents possess good practice while the majority had moderate (56.5%) practice score towards NCDs. Older age category of more than 40 years old had better knowledge scores compared to those below 40 years [median=25 (IqR=4) vs 23 (5), p=0.001]. Female respondents had higher attitude [25(7) vs 56 (6), p=0.025] and practice [5(2) vs 5(3), p=0.007] scores compared to male. Respondents with hypertension [25(4) vs 24(5), p=0.002] and diabetes mellitus [25(4) vs 24(4), p=0.014] had higher knowledge scores compared to non-disease respondents. The findings of this study depicted that respondents in the studied urban area had good knowledge and attitude towards NCDs. However, the practice was moderate. To overcome this problem, repeated reinforcement with health education will bring about a positive change in urban general population knowledge towards NCDs, especially in younger and non-disease population. 2018 Pharmascope Publications. All rights reserved.

The study evaluates the prevalence, knowledge, attitude, and practices of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) among adult Orang Asli and Malay ethnicity in Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. This cross-sectional study involving 634 respondents aged 18 years and above of Orang Asli (51.3%) and Malays (48.7%) from the rural villages. Structured interview questionnaire for disease history and KAP level conducted. Weight, height, waist circumference, blood pressure, and blood glucose levels then measured. Prevalence of NCDs was higher among Malays compared to Orang Asli with hypertension (35.0% vs 14.8%), hypercholesterolemia (31.1% vs 5.2%), and diabetes mellitus (16.2% vs 4.3%), respectively. Malays also had a higher percentage of being abdominal obese (70.6% vs 59.7%) and increased blood pressure (54.4% vs 29.8%). Multivariate analysis indicates hypercholesterolemia [OR=6.035 (95%CI: 3.150,11.561)], abdominal obesity [aOR= 1.807 (95%CI: 1.065, 3.067)], and increased in blood pressure [aOR= 2.359 (95%C1: 1.619,3.437)] have a significant relation with Malay ethnicity. For Orang Asli, 51.7% had poor knowledge, 72.3% had a good attitude, and 16.0% had a good practice. Knowledge and attitude scores were significantly less among Orang Asli with no significant difference for practice compared to the Malays. The prevalence of NCDs among the Malays is alarmingly high, with an increasing trend among Orang Asli, which needs immediate attention. The NCDs and obesity were significant among Malays but also showed a worrying trend in the Orang Asli as the good practice on a healthy life-style was low in both ethnicities. Thus, proper education and promotion regarding NCDs needed for diseases screening and prevention. 2020. All rights reserved.