Background: Out-of-pocket (OOP) payments are an inequitable mechanism for health financing as their high share of total health expenditures poses a risk of catastrophic healthcare expenditures. This study aimed to assess the distribution and progressivity of OOP payments made by Malaysian households for various group of healthcare services. Methods: This study utilized data from the Malaysian Household Expenditure Survey (HES) between 2014 and 2015, which involved 14,473 households. Distribution and progressivity of OOP payments were measured through their proportion of household consumption, a concentration curves plot and the Kakwani Progressivity Index (KPI). Results: The mean proportion of Malaysian OOP payments for healthcare of household consumption was 1.65%. The proportion increased across households’ consumption quintiles, from 1.03% made by the poorest 20% to 1.86% by the richest 20%. The OOP payments in Malaysia were progressive with a positive KPI of 0.0910. The OOP payments made for hospital-based services were the most progressive (KPI 0.1756), followed by medical products, appliances and equipment (KPI 0.1192), pharmaceuticals (0.0925) and outpatient-based services (KPI 0.0394) as the least progressive. Conclusions: Overall, the OOP payments for healthcare services in Malaysia were progressive and equitable as they were more concentrated among the richer households.

Introduction: Smoking tobacco has been a longstanding issue worldwide, but the trend of smoking electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) is now on the rise. Many people have the view that smoking e-cigarette is safer and less harmful, and this is worrying. Adolescents and young adults are easily influenced by advertisements on e-cigarette. Thus, this study was conducted to determine the knowledge, attitude, and practice on e-cigarette among university students. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional study using self-administered questionnaire among 484 university students was carried out in a public university in Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. Results: Respondents were 19 to 25 years old undergraduates, with the majority being female. In terms of smoking status, 32 (6.6%) of them were smokers, with only nine have ever tried e-cigarette, and only one being a regular user. Bivariate analysis showed knowledge, attitude and practices score on e-cigarette were correlated. Statistically significant associations were found between knowledge score and gender (p<0.001), while attitude and practice scores were associated with gender (p<0.001), household income (p = 0.013 and p = 0.001 respectively), as well as smoking status (p<0.001). Multivariate analysis revealed that being female and being a non-smoker were associated with higher attitude and practice scores. Conclusion: In conclusion, the awareness on e-cigarette needs to be improved among young adults and a more holistic intervention strategy should be implemented to prevent the rise of e-cigarette smoking.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a huge impact towards the teaching and learning activities in medical schools. Due to the outbreak, the curricular activities were shifted to a mainly digitised version of learning format. The purpose of this paper is to present the study design and methodology of a population-based survey on the impact of COVID-19 among medical students. The survey aims to investigate the level of knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) on the COVID-19 pandemic, the online learning readiness and psychological status among medical students in Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM). A universal sampling method will be used that involve 475 medical students from Year 1 to Year 6 in USIM. The data collection will be conducted through an online survey. The questionnaire consists of three components: the study of KAP on COVID-19, the online learning readiness and psychological impact of COVID-19 pandemic. Both of the KAP and online learning readiness questionnaire will be adopted, adapted and validated from previous research and will be based on a local study. As for the depression, anxiety and stress, the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS) questionnaire will be used. Duration of data collection is expected to be one month, and findings are expected to be ready by three months from the last data collection date. The exposure variables include sociodemographic factors and years of study, while the outcomes are the KAP scores, online learning readiness level, and DASS scores. Relationships between the outcomes and associated factors will be analysed once data collection is completed.

COVID-19 pandemic results in unprecendeted impacts globally. New discoveries and knowledge on this pandemic is evolving. A study was conducted to determine factors that are associated with knowledge, attitude and practice among medical students at one of the public universities in Malaysia towards COVID-19 pandemic. A cross-sectional study was conducted through online surveys by using a set of questionnare. The questionnaire was adapted and adopted from validated sources. It was found that, the scores for knowledge, practice and attitude were high among medical students. Male students had higher level of knowledge whereas females had significantly higher level of attitude and practice. Level of knowledge differed between years of study. Clinical year students had higher level of knowledge and practice compared to pre-clinical year students. Findings from this study might prove as the baseline for planning awareness campaigns for students for better containment of COVID-19 and its further spread

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