Victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) are frequent attendees at health care facilities. Although most literature on this subject focuses on developed or Western countries, there is a dearth of information from Asian countries. This study aims to estimate the prevalence of IPV among women attending urban primary care services in Malaysia and to identify the risk factors associated with IPV. Six out of 15 available public primary care clinics in the federal territory of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, were randomly selected. The sampling size for each clinic was conducted proportionate to the clinic's average daily patient attendance. A total of 882 women participated in this study via a self-administered questionnaire. We administered the women's experience with battering scale (WEB-scale) to estimate the prevalence of psychological violence and included a screening question for physical and sexual assault. The results showed that 22.0% of the women surveyed

Purpose: Management of female sexual dysfunction (FSD) is vital for women with breast cancer due to the devastating consequences, which include marital disharmony and reduced quality of life. We explore healthcare providers' (HCPs) perceptions and experiences in managing FSD for women living with breast cancer using phenomenological approach.Methods: This qualitative study was conducted using a face-to-face interview method to HCPs from two tertiary hospitals in North East Malaysia. The interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim, and transferred to NVivo ® for data management. The transcriptions were analyzed using thematic analysis.Results: Three key barriers were identi ed through the thematic analysis: a scarcity of related knowledge; the in uence of socio-cultural ideas about sex; and the speciality-centric nature of the healthcare system.Most HCPs interviewed had a very narrow understanding of sexuality, were unfamiliar with the meaning of FSD, and felt their training on sexual health issues to be very limited. They viewed talking about sex to be embarrassing to both parties that is, both to HCPs and patients and was therefore not a priority. They focused more on their specialty hence limited the time to discuss sexual health and FSD with their patients.Conclusion: Therefore, interventions to empower the knowledge, break the sociocultural barriers and improve the clinic settings are crucial for HCPs in managing FSD con dently.

This study evaluated the impact of maternal marital status on birth outcomes among young Malaysian women and investigated other risk factors influencing the birth outcomes. Pregnant women with and without marital ties at the point of pregnancy diagnosis were invited to participate in this study. Participants were interviewed using a structured questionnaire at pregnancy diagnosis and shortly after childbirth. From a total of 229 unmarried and 213 married women who participated, marital status was significantly associated with preterm birth (odds ratio [OR], 1.66; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.05-2.61) and low birth weight (OR, 3.61; 95% CI, 1.98-6.57). Other factors significantly associated with birth outcomes was prenatal care (OR, 4.92; 95% CI, 1.43-16.95), "use of drugs" (OR, 10.39; 95% CI, 1.14-94.76), age (OR, 1.12; 95% CI, 1.07-1.16), and number of prenatal visits (OR, 1.03; 95% CI, 1.00-1.07). Promoting access to prenatal care and social support programs for unmarried mothers may be important to reduce adverse pregnancy outcomes.

One of the issues of ineffective solid waste management may be attributable by human behaviour is lack of education and ineffectiveness of reduce, reuse and recycle (3R) awareness programmes, which the solution may lie in changing that behaviour. Therefore, a 3R programme was conducted to increase the knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) on 3R among 155 primary school students recruited by systematic random sampling from year one to six at a selected school in Tumpat, Kelantan. A set of questionnaire was given before and after the 3R programme to determine their KAP level and the effectiveness of the awareness programme in increasing their KAP on 3R. There was a significant difference in knowledge score (p = 0.030) but no significant differences in scores of attitude (p = 0.484) and practice (p=0.248) between before and after 3R programme. There was a weak correlation between knowledge and attitude (r=0.320) and between knowledge and practice (r=0.386) for before the 3R programme. There was also moderate correlation between attitude and practice (r=0.400) before the intervention programme. After the intervention programme, the correlation was increased from weak to strong correlation between knowledge and attitude (r=0.614) and weak to moderate correlation between knowledge and practice (r=0.476). There was moderate correlation between attitude and practice after the intervention programme (r=0.520). Hence, continuous awareness on 3R campaign and activities should be conducted at an early age among the students to increase their practices on 3R.