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Objectives: This study aims to identify knowledge, attitude, and practice of pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT) and to identify the prevalence of urinary incontinence. Materials and methods: The method used was a cross-sectional study. Self-administered knowledge, attitude, and practice questionnaires were distributed among childbearing women attending Maternal & Child Health Clinics in the East Coast region of Malaysia. Results: The findings revealed that most respondents (N = 896) had good or moderate knowledge (80.1%) and attitudes (77.3%) regarding PFMT but most of them (87.2%) still lacked practice. However, there was no association between urinary incontinence and PFMT practice. On the contrary, married women showed a higher risk of urinary incontinence. Conclusions: The practice of pelvic floor muscle training should be recommended and emphasized to childbearing women by healthcare professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The rehabilitation program for disabled children is provided through community-based rehabilitation (CBR) services by an initiative of the Department of Social Welfare Malaysia. This long-term program needs commitment and compliance, which relates to the quality of services experienced by parents and caregivers. Thus, the purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of the parents and caregivers of disabled children on the CBR services. Methods: This qualitative study utilized in-depth interview sessions held from March to May 2015. Fifteen parents and caregivers who had disabled children participating in the CBR program were selected using a purposive sampling method. All recorded conversations were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using Atlas.ti version 8.0. The thematic analysis was used for identifying, analyzing, and reporting the data obtained. The themes that emerged were read, reread, and peer checked until the researcher agreed on the thematic representation of the data. Results: Six major themes emerged from this study, including CBR activity, facilities, environment, communication, program impact, and management system. Conclusion: The majority of the parents and caregivers had good experiences with CBR services. However, several aspects could be given further attention to improve the CBR quality and to sustain its services for disabled children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rehabilitation for disabled children requires long-term programmes which are expensive to the family. This study aimed to estimate the cost incurred by caregivers' children with disabilities from Pahang, Terengganu and Kelantan participating in Community-Based Rehabilitation (CBR) (Centre- Based and Home-Based) and cost of seeking alternative rehabilitation. Cost analysis using the Activity-Based Costing (ABC) method was used to estimate twelve-months' expenditure in 2014 institutional year on 297 caregivers of children with disability, aged 0 to 18 years who attended CBR. Data were collected using a self-administered costing questionnaire and presented in median (IQR). Results showed that the median direct and indirect costs, excluding medications and alternative care were nearly four times as high in Home-Based compared to Centre-Based (RM2, 376 (11,228) vs. RM608 (739) (p = <0.001). Both groups of caregivers spent a significant amount of resources on alternative rehabilitation. The high costs incurred for alternative rehabilitation is a major economic burden to the family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]