*Breast cancer is the most common cancer and the leading cause of cancer death among women of all ethnic and age groups in Malaysia. Objective: The objectives of this study were to evaluate the knowledge of breast cancer risk factors, symptoms and methods of screening among female university students and their perception towards the disease treatment outcomes. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted from February to March 2008 at Universiti Sains Malaysia. Two hundred participants from 10 randomly selected faculties were interviewed face to face by a trained pharmacist using a validated questionnaire. In addition to their demographic characteristics, participants were required to answer 22 questions concerning knowledge of breast cancer and five questions related to their perception of breast cancer management and treatment outcomes. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 15. Results: The mean age of the respondents was 26.7 (SD=1.9) years. The results showed that the vast majority of the female university students had inadequate knowledge of breast cancer. The mean total knowledge score of the students was 60.7%. Indian students had significantly less knowledge of breast cancer compared to their Chinese and Malay counterparts (p<0.05). However, more than two third of the students were aware of breast self examination (BSE) and clinical breast examination (CBE) recommendations. Furthermore, the students had positive perceptions towards the treatment outcomes of breast cancer. Conclusion: This study has highlighted the need of a breast cancer awareness campaign, which should also stress the importance of early detection and reporting of breast cancer.

Objectives. To identify and evaluate factors affecting the career preferences of fourth-year bachelor of pharmacy (BPharm) students in Malaysia in the presence of a 4-year period of mandatory government service. Methods. A validated self-administered questionnaire was used in this cross-sectional study to collect data from final-year BPharm students enrolled at 3 government-funded universities and 1 private university in Malaysia. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analysis. Results. Three hundred fourteen students responded (213 from public universities and 101 from the private university). Approximately 32% of public university students and 37% of private university students ranked their own interest in pharmacy as the reason for undertaking pharmacy degree studies; 40.4% of public and 19.8% of private university respondents stated that they would enter a nonpharmacy-related career upon graduation if given the choice. Public university students ranked hospital pharmacy as their choice of first career setting (4.39, p 5 0.001), while private students ranked community pharmacy first (4.1, p 5 0.002). On a scale of 1 to 5, salary received the highest mean score (3.9 and 4.0, p 5 0.854) as the extrinsic factor most influencing their career choice. Conclusions. Final-year students at Malaysian public universities were most interested in hospital pharmacy practice as their first career step upon graduation, while private university students were most interested in community pharmacy. The top 3 extrinsic factors rated as significant in selecting a career destination were salary, benefits, and geographical location.

ObjectiveTo explore the consumers’ perceptions and knowledge towards issues surrounding generic medicines utilization in Penang, Malaysia.MethodsA cross sectional survey was conducted with consumers who attended the annual University open day. Using convenience sampling, survey forms were distributed to the respective consumers via the help of a group of trained 1st year pharmacy students. For a period of 5 days, 400 respondents had participated in the survey. Analysis of the response from the collected forms yielded in 396 usable forms.ResultsOnly 28.3% (n=112) of the respondents were familiar with the term “generic medicines”. More than 70% of the respondents do not know that generic medicines can be marketed under different names. About 34% (n=38) of consumers stated that they had been given information regarding generics by their pharmacists. In terms of side effects, about 32% (n=127) of the respondents felt that generic medicines may cause more side effects than branded medicines. Majority of the consumers surveyed (64%) understand that generic cost less compared to their branded counterparts.ConclusionThis survey showed that there is a gap in consumers’ knowledge and understanding about generic medicines. The findings also suggest that direct patient education by the healthcare providers on issues relating to safety and efficacy of generic medicines could further enhance their uptake.

These findings suggest that there is no single WTP value for a quality-adjusted life-year. The CE threshold estimated for Malaysia was found to be lower than the threshold value recommended by the World Health Organization.

The aim of this paper is to present a compact and coherent within the Bayesian inference method of best meta-analysis model selection as well as to present analytical results in performing Gibbs sampling within the MTC framework. METHODS: In order to perform Gibbs sampling from the posterior distribution in the random effects model of MTC we evaluate the formulas for the conditional distributions for all parameters. We test for the existence of between study heterogeneity and other parametric restrictions by comparing marginal data densities of competing models. We show how the prior distribution on the model space may affect the inference about best model selection. As an empirical example we present an analysis of effectiveness of two real (although blinded) drugs and placebo. RESULTS: We present the marginal posterior distributions of key parameters as well as the comparison of a few restricted models. Among 18 studies from the systematic review dealing with treating the analyzed medical issue with drugs of interest there exist a significant effect of heterogeneity. The a priori distribution on the space of models does not affect this final conclusion (Bayes factor varies from 185 to 190 in favor of the unreduced model). The posterior odds ratio (which equals around 293.1) points that the treatment with Medicine A brings a stronger effect than with Medicine B or placebo. CONCLUSIONS: Our results show, that using pure Bayesian techniques can be widely used within the MTC framework. We present an easy to operate and coherent inference in performing complex metaanalyses. We also found confirmed, that Medicine A significantly better increases the level of observed outcome than other treatments.

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OBJECTIVES:To investigate the characteristics of clinical trials conducted in 5 Asian countries over the past 2 years with a focus on: disease conditions, funding sources and age groups. METHODS: ClinicalTrials.gov was searched for trials initiated after January 1, 2010 in the following countries: Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan and Thailand. The 10 most common conditions and trial sponsors were ranked and the percentage of trials in adults and children was calculated. These figures were compared between countries. RESULTS: During the time period, the following number of trials were identified (number; trials per 1,000,000 population): Taiwan (826; 35.6), Korea (1597; 32.7), Thailand (375; 5.4), Malaysia (132; 4.6) and Indonesia (47; 0.2). The most common trials in all countries were for chronic conditions. Trials on type 2 diabetes were the most common trials in Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia (range: 3-18%), and were the 3 rd most common in Korea (2%). Breast cancer trials were also common in all 5 countries (range: 1-2%) and non-small cell lung cancer trials were common in 4 countries (range: 1-2%), except Indonesia. Funding for the trials was predominantly non-industry in Taiwan, Thailand and Korea (64%, 61% and 53% respectively), but predominantly industry in Malaysia and Indonesia (72% and 54% respectively). Over 40% of trials in Taiwan were sponsored by local medical institutions. Trials in adults alone were the most common in all countries: Korea (84%), Malaysia (84%), Taiwan (81%), Thailand (74%) and Indonesia (65%). CONCLUSIONS: The number of trials per 1,000,000 population was much higher in Taiwan and Korea than in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. Trials conducted in all these countries, however, show strong similarities in terms of the conditions studied; although there are some differences (e.g. funding sources) between the countries that suggest other factors influence clinical trials in these countries.