A BSTRACT Background: High rates of psychological problems including depression among university students have been reported in various studies around the world. The objectives of this study were to explore the prevalence of depressive disorder, as well as the associated sociodemographic factors (gender, origin, school, and year of study) among health sciences students. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 425 students from 5 different schools of health sciences at International Islamic University Malaysia, using the Patient Health Questionaire-9 (PHQ-9). Results: With a response rate of 85.9% ( n = 365), the results showed a depressive disorder prevalence of 36.4%. The mean PHQ-9 score of the respondents was 8.10 (SD = 4.9), indicating mild depression severity. A statistically significant association was revealed between gender and severity of depression ( P = 0.03), as well as between students’ origin and severity of depression ( P = 0.02). Conclusion: The findings indicated high prevalence of depression among undergraduate health sciences students. While providing significant information to students’ affairs department, the study findings suggest the necessity to address depressive disorder in health sciences university students in Malaysia. Future research is needed to confirm these results in larger samples.

Background The awareness of symptoms and action towards heart attack and stroke is important to reduce the morbidity and mortality in both developed and developing countries. The aim of this study was to develop a questionnaire on awareness and action towards symptoms and risk factors of heart attack and stroke among lay public in Malaysia. The questionnaire was developed in both English and Bahasa Melayu. Methods Primarily the questions were generated in English. Face and content validity were performed by five experts in Pharmacy Practice and Medicine. A translation as per guidelines into Malay language was performed; followed by face-to-face interview of 96 lay public in Kuantan, Pahang, Malaysia. For internal consistency, reliability was assessed utilizing Cronbach’s alpha. Results The mean ± SD of the awareness and action towards heart attack symptoms and risk factors was 65.52 ± 6.3, with a good internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.75), whereas the mean of the awareness and action towards stroke symptoms and risk factors was 61.93 ± 7.11, with an accepted internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.86). Conclusion The current validation research showed that the developed questionnaire is valid and reliable for assessing the awareness and action towards symptoms and risk factors of heart attack and stroke among lay public in Malaysia.