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This study examines the construct validity and reliability of the Malay language questionnaire for urinary incontinence diagnosis (QUID) in women. Study Design: Random sampling design was used in this cross-sectional survey. Materials and Methods: The Americanized English language questionnaire was translated to the Malay language and distributed to community-dwelling Malaysian women living in various locations in Selangor. The construct validity was tested using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) followed by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The reliability was determined using Cronbach's α. Results: A total of 111 women completed the Malay language QUID in this pilot study. The Keiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy of 0.675 and Bartlett's test of sphericity (χ 2 = 284.633, df = 15, p = 0.001) indicated that the EFA was possible. The total variance and the scree plot identified two factors above the initial eigenvalue of 1 while a third factor was just below it (0.758). The CFA output showed a recursive model with the solution being not admissible because two unobserved and exogenous variables had negative variance estimates. The following values of absolute fit indices showed an acceptable level of fit: 1) Chi-square test with χ 2 = 4.997, df = 5, p = 0.416, indicated a smaller difference between the expected and observed covariance matrices; 2) GFI = 0.986, AGFI = 0.939, RMR = 0.021 and CMIN/DF = 1.0 indicated acceptable level of fit; 3) The baseline comparison values of NFI = 0.983 and CFI = 1.0 also H. K. Dhillon et al. 845 indicated a good fit to the data; 4) RMSEA = 0.000 was considered a perfect fit indicating that the hypothesized model was a good fit to the observed data. Under the hypothesis of "close fit", the probability of getting a sample RMSEA as large as 0.000 was 0.567. The Cronbach's α coefficient of 0.823 indicated good reliability. Conclusion: The Malay language QUID is a valid and reliable instrument for diagnosing female urinary incontinence in the Malaysian population.

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A large proportion of women complaining of vasomotor complaints took self-care actions and the choice of self-care actions depended on the area of residence and educational level. The use of modern remedies and less of the traditional remedies was more common amongst the more affluent and educated women than women in rural areas who either did nothing or resorted to the more simple type of self-care actions. Contrary to our expectations, the use of traditional remedies was low.

Information on urinary incontinence (UI) amongst Malaysian women remains incomplete and inconclusive. Of the few available studies, none had used the holistic approach to study UI amongst Malaysian women and information on the prevalence and the types of UI experienced by the Malaysian women therefore remains debatable. The objectives of this study were to estimate the prevalence of UI and its types in Malaysian females, determine the demographic characteristics of those with UI and to elucidate the association between potential risk factors and female UI. A validated, standardised Malay Monash Women Health Questionnaire (MMWHQ) was administered to 350 community dwelling, Malaysian women. The response rate was 86% (n=301). The dropout rate for interviews was 30%. Descriptive statistics and multinomial regression were applied. The estimated prevalence of UI (n=52) was 17.3 ± 4.65% (95% Confidence Interval 16.95 -26.25%). Majority of respondents had reported no UI (82.7%; n=249), while 8.0% of the respondents complained of stress urinary incontinence (SUI), 5% reported urge urinary incontinence (UUI) and 4.3% had mixed urinary incontinence (MUI). Most women with UI were of middle age, of Chinese ethnicity, with secondary education, with an income of

Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is now considered a fundamental basis for clinical practices globally. There is an enormous necessity of going beyond merely reading research articles to actually applying research studies to solve patient management problems on a day to day basis. In order to have a cutting edge in a very competitive, international trade of education, Monash University Malaysia encourages Year 1 and 2 undergraduates to engage in various research projects, available within the School of Medicine during their semester breaks. This paper demonstrates a student’s use of experiential learning, reflective journaling and blended Learning while engaging in a research project. The basic research skills acquired early in the undergraduate MBBS curriculum is expected to achieve advance level research skills as the medical student completes the fifth year of the course. Hence, today’s cutting edge of developing research skills early increases the chances of tomorrow’s employability and employment in evidence based health care settings.

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