Omar Thanoon Dawood

Parent´s knowledge and management of their children´s ailments in Malaysia

Minor ailments like sore throat, fever, cough and diarrhea can be relieved with over-the-counter (OTC) medications such as paracetamol or other traditional remedies, without seeking for consultation from general practitioners. Parents usually take the responsibility to come up with some kind of treatment for their children. Objective (1) to evaluate the parents’ medical knowledge about OTC medicines which are usually used by the parents to treat their children and (2) to evaluate the parents’ management in dealing with their children’s ailments, and (3) to evaluate the association between medical knowledge and the management of children’s ailments related to medicine use among the parents. Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted to measure the parents’ knowledge about their children’s ailments. Subjects were selected and information was obtained in September 2008. Non-probability convenient sampling method was used. Parents were recruited from the general public to answer the questionnaires. Results 197 parents filled in the questionnaires. From the total respondents, 48.2% of them were male. This study showed that most respondents have medium knowledge (6.11 SD=3.6) and a moderate management (4.39 SD=2.7). The results showed that there is a significant difference between the knowledge and the management level of ailments (P=0.033). Regarding the education level of the parents and the socioeconomic status, the p-value showed there was a significant difference between parents’ knowledge and their education level (P=0.012). Conclusion This study showed that parents have inadequate knowledge and some misconception about how to go about treating their children when they are unwell. It is hoped that by identifying weak areas in parents’ management to their children’s ailments, better planned educational and behavioral modification efforts can be made to elevate the knowledge level among the parents when they medically treat their children.

Role of Pharmacists in Health Based Non-Governmental Organizations(NGO): Prospects and Future Directions

In this era of globalization, there are many non-government organizations (NGO) that grow in the community. Nowadays, NGOs are becoming the medium for the community to voice out or be the one who lend their hand to help the community around them. In the health care profession, NGOs play an important role to help the people in the community to have a better health in the future. In order to move the state of health of the people in the community, NGOs should acknowledge the role of the pharmacist in their organizations. However, contribution of pharmacists in NGOs is essential because inappropriate assistance or incorrect assistance can lead to death of the consumers. In fact, pharmacists as experts in medicines, they will play important role in distribution the medications and educating the medicines consumers within NGOs. Pharmacists could help in relief efforts and they also help in humanitarian aid. Besides that, they could help in the equality in social and social justice for people in need. Although all these people in the NGOs are well educated but somehow, their knowledge alone does not suffice in helping the community towards a better health. There are still some NGOs that tend to ignore the role of the pharmacist in their organization. As they tend to ignore the existence of the pharmacist, the drug that they had distributed to the community will have higher chance of producing an adverse effect towards the consumer. In this essay, the roles of pharmacist in many sectors of the NGOs will be discussed further to open the eyes of the people in the NGOs about how important and useful pharmacists could be in their organization.

Children’s knowledge and beliefs about medicines

Minor illnesses in children are often cured at home with over the counter medicines. Even though there is a wide use of medicines among children, they rarely receive medical advice about their medications from doctors or pharmacists. The aim of this study is to evaluate children’s beliefs about medicines as well as to explain what children know about medicines. A cross-sectional survey was used to collect data from four primary schools in Penang Island, Malaysia. The target population of this research was schoolchildren of 11 and 12 years old regardless of their gender and social status. A self-administration questionnaire was used to obtain the data from schoolchildren and their parents. After including all schoolchildren in grades five and six, the total sample size was 1000 children in addition to 1000 parents. This study found that most children have inadequate knowledge and false beliefs about the efficacy of medicines. Children’s beliefs about the efficacy of medicines were affected by their age group, gender and race (p < .05). Females, older children and Chinese were more knowledgeable about the efficacy of medicines. Furthermore, the socio-economic status, parents’ education level and parents’ occupation influenced children’s beliefs about medicines (p < .001). This study showed that children have misconception about medicines. The need for medicine education should be implemented to get more knowledgeable users of medicines in future. However, the role of health-care professional should be increased in terms of medicine education.

Factors affecting knowledge and practice of medicine use among the general public in the State of Penang, Malaysia

This study aimed to evaluate the knowledge and practice of medicine use among the general public and the factors affecting the practice of the safe use of medicines.

Malaysian Cosmetic Market: Current and Future Prospects

The cosmetic industry has been expanding rapidly in both developed and developing countries. The cosmetics market in Asia seems to be one of the fastest growing markets. The market value of the Asia Pacific has increased to more than US

A qualitative study exploring medicines use pattern and practice among general public in Malaysia

70 billion, which is the second highest market after the Western European market. As reported in 2013, Malaysian spent about US

Prevalence and Types of Prescribing Errors at A Public Tertiary Care Centre in Malaysia

407 million on cosmetics and toiletries products and this demand was mainly met by imports. The skin care products are the main driver of the cosmetics markets, which represent value of US

Assessment of medicines use pattern among the general public in the state of Penang, Malaysia

229 million followed by eye color cosmetics with value of US

Familiarisation of Children with Medicines and their Sources of Information.

20.6 million. In 2013, Malaysia imported about US

Medication compliance among children

295 million worth of cosmetics and toiletries and the top three importing countries are the United States, Japan and Thailand. It is found that Malaysian consumers’ interest was influenced by heavy advertising, marketing and growing prosperity that increased their interest in premium brands, and they prefer to use imported cosmetics products. The more recent in the Malaysian market trade is the emerging of halal cosmetics which will be attraction for the country’s Muslim customers.