Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer mortality among women in Malaysia. Delayed diagnosis is preventable and has major effects on patients' prognosis and survival. The objectives of our study were to identify the magnitude of delayed diagnosis and its associated factors in women with breast cancer in Malaysia.

Respiratory tract infection (RTI) is a major public health challenge during the Muslim pilgrimage to Makkah. This study aims to evaluate the knowledge, attitude, and practice of Malaysian Hajj and Umrah pilgrims towards the prevention of RTIs in 2018 and determine correlations among three domains. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 225 Umrah and Hajj pilgrims. Knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) towards RTI prevention was assessed by using a validated self-administered questionnaire among pilgrims attending a weekly orientation course organized by private Hajj/Umrah companies. Out of 225 participants, 65.9% of respondents were female with the mean (SD) age of 46.74 (13.38) years. The interquartile range (IQR) score for knowledge is 18.0 (6.0), the mean scores of attitude and practice are 32.65 (4.72) and 25.30 (4.9). respectively. Significant and negative linear correlations between knowledge and practice (r = −0.232, p < 0.001), and attitude and practice (r = 0.134, p = 0.045) were observed. Results from the current study showed good knowledge of RTIs among Malaysian pilgrims. However, a poor attitude was reflected in their preventive practice behaviors. This will further help in the prevention and management of RTIs during Hajj and Umrah. Therefore, an extensive educational health campaign should be provided to pilgrims to create awareness.

Background: Hajj pilgrimage faces numerous challenges including a high prevalence of respiratory tract infection as well as its prevention strategies. The aim of this study was to develop and validate a questionnaire to evaluate knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) towards respiratory tract infections (RTIs) prevention among Malaysian Hajj pilgrims. Methods: This study was conducted among Malaysian Umrah pilgrims in Malaysia from Kuala Lumpur and Kelantan. The questionnaire then underwent a series of validation process that included content, face validity and exploratory part. Item response theory (IRT) analysis was utilized for the validation of the knowledge domain. The attitude and practice were validated using the exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Results: The validation process resulted in a questionnaire that comprised of four main sections: demography, knowledge, attitude, and practice. Following IRT analysis of the knowledge domain, all items analyzed were within the acceptable range of difficulty and discrimination. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure of sampling adequacy (KMO) was 0.72 and 0.84 for attitude and practice domain respectively and Bartlett’s test of Sphericity for both domains were highly significant (P < 0.001). The factor analysis resulted in two factors with total of 12 items in attitude domain, and 2 factors with total of 13 items in the practice domain with satisfactory factor loading (> 0.3). The Cronbach’s alpha for reliability of the knowledge, attitude and practice domains all showed acceptable values of > 0.6 (0.92, 0.77 and 0.85). Conclusion: The findings of this validation and reliability study showed that the developed questionnaire had a satisfactory psychometric property for measuring KAP of Malaysian Hajj pilgrims.

The management of waste materials is a serious problem worldwide, especially in urbanizing countries like Malaysia. This study was conducted to compare the prevalence of health symptoms and diseases diagnosed among residents exposed to the solid waste open dumpsite in the suburb of Sabak with the non-exposed community. Research related to exposure to solid waste dumping with complete health problems has never been combined in one study. A comparative cross-sectional study was conducted. The exposed group included residents within a 1 km radius and the non-exposed group included residents between a 2.5 and 4.0 km radius from the dumpsite. The selected residents were interviewed using validated, structured questionnaires. A total of 170 residents from the exposed group and 119 residents from the non-exposed group were selected. The mean (SD) duration time of residence was 22.6 (18.9) years for the exposed group and 15.0 (12.0) years for the non-exposed group. Dumpsite exposure was significantly associated with sore throat (adjusted odd ratio (AOR) 1.88; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.05, 3.38; p = 0.031), diabetes mellitus (AOR 2.84; 95% CI: 1.10, 7.30; p = 0.021) and hypertension (AOR 2.56; 95% CI: 1.27, 5.13; p = 0.006). This study provides evidence that the unsanitary solid waste disposal in Malaysia is hazardous to the health of residents in the surrounding 1 km, and efforts are needed to minimize the hazards.