This study aimed to assess medication use in pregnant women in Malaysia by measuring use, knowledge, awareness, and beliefs about medications. This was an observational, cross-sectional study involving a total of 447 pregnant women who attended the Obstetrics and Gynecology Clinic, Hospital Kuala Lumpur (HKL), Malaysia. A validated, self-administered questionnaire was used to collect participant data. Most of pregnant women had taken medication during pregnancy and more than half of them (52.8%) showed a poor level of knowledge about the medication use during pregnancy. Eighty-three percent had a poor level of awareness and 56.5% had negative beliefs. Age and education level were significantly associated with the level of knowledge regarding medication use during pregnancy. Multiparous pregnant women, and pregnant women from rural areas were observed to have a higher level of awareness compared with those who lived in urban areas. Use of medication during pregnancy was determined to be significantly associated with education level, and race. Although there was prevalent use of medication among pregnant women, many had negative beliefs, and insufficient knowledge and awareness about the risks of taking medication during pregnancy. Several sociodemographic characteristics were significantly associated with the use (race and education level), level of knowledge (age and education level), awareness (parity and place of residence), and beliefs (race, education level, and occupation status) towards medication use during pregnancy.

Vaccine hesitancy has surfaced globally within the last few decades, and the fears and misconceptions of people about vaccine safety and effectiveness have been identified as key factors for their under-utilization. The familiarity, attitudes, and religious beliefs of the public and of future healthcare practitioners regarding vaccination are extensive areas needing exploration. The present exploratory cross-sectional study was designed, planned and carried out on students enrolled in health science and non-health science courses in one of the public universities of Malaysia. A research instrument that had been formulated, validated and subjected to reliability testing was used to collect the data, which were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. A response rate of 80.8% (n = 202) was obtained: the majority were female (n = 161, 79.7%), and had been vaccinated before (n = 190, 97.5%), while a mere 2% did not support vaccination for reasons pertaining to safety issues. The vaccine familiarity score was 10.79 ± 1.4, which significantly differed among the study disciplines (p < 0.001). The mean of the total attitude score was 14.95 ± 1.5, with no significant difference among demographics being noted. The mean of the total religious beliefs score was 24.29 ± 2.8 and significantly differed based on gender (p = 0.040) and study disciplines (p < 0.001). The current findings showed that the participants were familiar with vaccines and had generally positive attitudes and positive religious beliefs toward vaccination; thus, one can expect that their inclusion in immunization campaigns will generate positive outcomes of the immunization program. Although the current research reported few knowledge gaps, these may be handled with the introduction of a specialized immunization course at an undergraduate level.

Background: Patient education and self-care are important not only for diabetes prevention but also chronic disease management. Community pharmacists are an ideal position to play a role in providing medicines management, lifestyle and preventative advice specific to type-2 diabetes care, Malaysian pharmacists must be ready and willing to firmly establish such clear roles and as such, undergraduate pharmacy students need to be equipped with the skills and mind-set to accept such a challengeObjective: To explore knowledge and awareness of pharmacy undergraduate students at Universiti Technology MARA (UiTM) towards diabetes risk factors. To identify potential diabetes risk factors by evaluating dietary intake and to determine students’ attitude towards their future roles as health care providers.Method: 159 Malaysian third-year undergraduate pharmacy students were provided a questionnaire and a two-day food diary. The questionnaire consisted of four sections to examine demographics, lifestyle and diet, together with knowledge of diabetes and the perception of pharmacists’ role.Results: A total of 113 completed questionnaires were received. 20% of the respondents were overweight or obese and 21% had elevated blood pressure. 95% of students consumed only 50% of the recommend daily calorie intake for adults. Students however possessed good knowledge of diabetes with a positive attitude towards pharmacist roles in healthcare.Conclusion: Overall, the health status of Malaysian pharmacy students is very similar to the general population, displaying similar risk factors and dietary habits despite their status as future healthcare professionals. Students do however display a good knowledge of diabetes and appear positive towards their roles as future pharmacists.

Stress among the university students had been triggered by the long-haul social distancing during the pandemic. Many had turned to playing video games more than usual as a social lifeline that could be potentially addictive. This study aims to evaluate the level of video gaming addiction during COVID-19 pandemic particularly among the UiTM Puncak Alam students. A cross-sectional study design with self-administered online survey was used to achieve the targeted objectives. The survey included several sections such as frequency of playing video games and 7-Item Game Addiction Scale (GAS). More than half of the cohort were females (60%) with average age of 23.46 ± 3.64 years. The findings showed that on average, these video gamers played approximately 2.33 ± 1.83 hours daily or 3.82 ± 2.04 days weekly. This study revealed that the prevalence of pathological and excessive gamers was low among the pharmacy students even during the pandemic restriction.