In 2020, the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic had triggered the lockdown in many countries around the world. School closure was no exception as a measure to limit the spread of the disease. This step was expected to bring some impact on parents, especially if both of them were working. In this study, we aimed to investigate Malaysian parental attitudes and experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. We conducted an online cross-sectional survey by using a structured questionnaire, between May and June 2020. A total of 273 parents with children aged below 18 years old were involved. Descriptive analysis was done to determine the sociodemographic data of the respondents, their attitudes, and their experiences associated with the school closure during the outbreak. 97.4 % of parents agreed with the school closure. The majority of them believed the outbreak was serious and the school dismissal was appropriate to protect their children and the community. However, only 54.9 % were well prepared for the measure. 11.4 % of parents had difficulty arranging childcare. During the outbreak, 85.7 % experienced missing work and 71.4 % felt at risk of losing their jobs. The school closure also indirectly incurred additional costs for 88.6% of the parents and partially contributed to 75.5% of the parents losing income. Unexpected long-term school closure might cause some adverse outcomes to the employed parents during a pandemic, therefore, the health authority and education department should take this into consideration when mitigating this issue.

Traditional and Complementary Medicine (TCM) practice is increasing worldwide and Malaysia is no exception. Despite the wide use of TCM by the population, there seems to be an issue of not disclosing TCM use to their medical doctor. The aim was to explore the related factors that influence the disclosure of TCM use to medical doctor among respondents in selected longhouses in Sarawak. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 90 respondents from selected Iban longhouses in Julau, Sarikei District.  Data were collected using face-to-face interview based on questionnaire consisted of sociodemographic characteristics, TCM use and disclosure, health profile, healthcare utilization and attitude towards TCM. To determine the factors related to disclosure of TCM use, independent t-test and Chi-square (χ2) test was used to examine the relationship between various variables and disclosure of TCM use. The mean age of studied participants was 45.20 (±14.92) years and 80% were married. The prevalence of ever used of TCM treatment was 70%. The rate of disclosure of TCM use among respondents was 27%. Univariate analyses yielded three main factors that significant associated with the disclosure of TCM use among respondents which were education level, presence of chronic diseases and type of chronic diseases (heart disease). The rate of disclosure of TCM use in this study is very low consistent with other local and foreign studies. Thus, other relevant factors that are not studied need to be further explored for better understanding in order to have better integration between TCM and current health system.