Background The rate of cardiac rehabilitation attendance at the Sarawak Heart Centre was identified as very low, and the reason has not been investigated. A scale is needed to identify barriers to participation in cardiac rehabilitation among patients with heart disease in Sarawak, Malaysia. Purpose The purposes of this study were to translate, adapt, and evaluate the Malay-language version of the Cardiac Rehabilitation Barriers Scale (CRBS) and to measure the psychometric properties of the Malay-version CRBS to justify its use in Sarawak. Methods A forward and back-translation method was used. Content validity was assessed by three experts. Psychometric testing was conducted on a sample of 283 patients who were eligible to participate in cardiac rehabilitation. A construct validity test was performed using factor analysis. Cronbach's alpha was used to examine the internal consistency. The test–retest reliability was calculated using the intraclass correlation coefficient on 22 participants. Independent-samples t test and analysis of variance were conducted to assess the criterion validity. Mean scores for total barriers of the scale and each individual factor were compared among the different patient characteristics. Results The Malay-version CRBS showed an item level of content validity index of 1.00 for all of the items after improvements were made based on the experts' suggestions. The factor analysis, using principal component analysis with direct oblimin rotation, extracted four factors that differed from the original study. These four factors explained 52.50% of the cumulative percentage of variance. The Cronbach's alphas ranged from .74 to .81 for the obtained factors. Test–retest reliability was established using the intraclass correlation coefficient value of .78. Criterion validity was supported using the significant differences in the mean score for total barriers among educational level, driving distance, travel time to the hospital, and cardiac rehabilitation attendance. Conclusions/Implications for Practice This study found the Malay-version CRBS to be a valid and reliable instrument. It may be used with inpatients to identify barriers to participation in cardiac rehabilitation to promote rehabilitation attendance and improve patient care.

BackgroundPersisting delay in seeking treatment among Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI) patients was reported in Malaysia despite intensified efforts in educating the public on symptoms of AMI and the importance of seeking prompt treatment. Studies outside Malaysia have shown that patients’ personal thoughts during symptom onset could contribute to the delay. The purpose of this study is to explore the barriers of AMI patients prior to the decision of seeking treatment in Malaysia.MethodsA qualitative descriptive research approach was chosen. Individual in-depth interviews were conducted among 18 patients with AMI. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. Recordings were transcribed and coded, codes were subsequently organized into categories. The stages of coding and identifying categories were repeated before themes were identified.ResultsThree meaningful themes with nine sub-themes that may have influenced the delayed decision to seek treatment were identified. Some themes identified were culturally bound.ConclusionsThe findings of this study give insights on barriers prior to the decision of seeking treatment when patients were experiencing AMI. Findings indicates that interventions targeted at increasing knowledge about AMI symptoms and correct actions using an informative approach at the current practice may not be adequate to reduce patient delay. The findings of this study could provide basis for the development of interventions that are culturally relevant to the Malaysians setting to promote behavioural change in the population and reduce pre-hospital delay.

Objective Pancreatic calcifications (PC) are considered specific for chronic pancreatitis (CP), but PC may also be present in non-CP diseases. The aims are to understand the pattern of calcifications in different diseases and to determine they were related to malignant diseases. Methods A retrospective study was performed including patients with PC or CP undergoing surgery in the Department of General Surgery of Ruijin Hospital from January 2003 to June 2018. Results PC were observed in 168 (4.5%) of the 3755 patients with pancreatic diseases. The majority of patients with PC had three kinds of CP (73.2%) while 26.8% had other five kinds of non-CP diseases. The incidences of PC in the pancreatic diseases were lower than these in previous studies. In patients with non-CP diseases, the incidence of PC in malignant intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm (IPMN) was significantly higher than benign IPMN (8.3% vs. 0.7%, p = 0.004). In 204 patients with CP, pancreatic calcification (OR = 3.7), advanced age (> 55 years), high BMI (> 24 kg/m2), parenchymal atrophy and pancreatic mass were independent predictors for malignancy. In patients of CP wih pancreatic mass (n = 81), the ability of PC (OR = 28.6) to predict malignancy increased nearly sevenfold. Conclusion The disease spectrum with PC was very diverse but the incidences of PC in the pancreatic diseases were low. PC may be related to malignant IPMN in non-CP diseases and is related to malignancy in the patients with CP, including the cases without pancreatic mass.