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This study aimed to validate the Worker Well-Being Questionnaire, originally developed by the US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, in the Malay language. The translation process involved an initial independent translation by a professional translator, followed by a comparison of translations to synthesize a unified version, which was subsequently back-translated. The back-translations were then reviewed by an expert committee to create a finalized questionnaire version. The results of this validation study indicate a high level of satisfaction, demonstrating an excellent fit with confirmatory factor analysis (CFI and TLI values ranging from 0.96 to 0.99) and a low root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA values ranging from 0.03 to 0.07). Moreover, the questionnaire exhibits sound internal consistency, with Cronbach’s alpha values exceeding 0.7, and the factor structures align with theoretical expectations. In conclusion, the Malay version of the questionnaire faithfully reproduces the original instrument, enabling a robust and efficient assessment of workers’ well.

Introduction The Decisional Balance Inventory is a tool used to measure propensity to maintain or change a habit which takes into consideration the perceived advantages and disadvantages. This study aimed to establish the validity and reliability of a Malay language version of the DBI for assessing inclination for change in smoking behavior among secondary school-going adolescents in Malaysia. Methods We administered the MDBI to 669 secondary school students selected through multistage sampling. The sample consisted of 60.1% male (n=398) and 39.9% (n=264) female students, more than two-thirds (69.9%, n=463) of which were from rural areas. The majority of the respondents were aged 13–14 years [13 years, 36.4% (n=241), 14 years, 40.0% (n=265), 16 years, 23.6% (n=156)]. The construct validity of the MDBI was assessed using explanatory (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and the reliability of the MDBI via Cronbach’s alpha. Results EFA and parallel analysis extracted three factors in the MDBI that accounted for 65.4% of the observed variance, and this was supported by CFA. Internal consistency of the three factors ranged from 0.734 to 0.867, indicating acceptable reliability. Conclusions The MDBI has good psychometric properties and is suitable for measuring smoking intention among Malaysian secondary school-going adolescents. However, it should continue to be tested to expand its usefulness and applicability among adolescents in other sociodemographic settings.

Abstract Background Olfaction plays an enormous role in every aspect of life including health, emotions, social life, and safety. This is why olfactory dysfunction will leave a great impact on a person’s life. During the recent pandemic hit of coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19), much importance was given to olfaction and its sequelae post-COVID-19. There is various questionnaire being used for determining olfactory disorders worldwide. In Malaysia, Malay language is widely conversed among the local population hence an assessment tool for an olfactory specific quality of life is necessary. Method This is a cross-sectional study performed in the Otorhinolaryngology clinic in a tertiary hospital. The short Questionnaire of Olfactory Disorders-Negative Statements (sQOD-NS) is a validated questionnaire that is a simple and easy tool to assess the impact of olfactory dysfunction in daily life. The original version of the short Questionnaire of Olfactory Disorders-Negative Statements (sQOD-NS) questionnaire was translated into the Malay language. A forward-backwards translation, validity, and reliability study was done on this questionnaire. A Malay version of sQOD-NS was responded to by a total of 70 participants including 35 patients of normosia and 35 patients with smell dysfunction and repeated after 2 weeks via phone call response. The discriminant validity, internal consistency, and test re-test reliability were assessed. Results The pilot study revealed that participants who were normosmic had a higher mean score than smell dysfunction. A Student t test shows mean 20.5 ± 1.22 in normosmic group and 6.06 ± 2.41 in hyposmic group which are significant with p value of < 0.01. The coefficient of correlation (r) between test and retest scores was 0.77 (P < 0.001). Conclusion The Malay translation of sQOD-NS is a validated questionnaire that can be used both in clinical practice and in academics.

Abstract Background The Quality of Life Impact Refractive Correction (QIRC) questionnaire is a Rasch-validated instrument to assess the quality of life of ametropes with refractive correction. The original QIRC was validated in the United Kingdom. This study aimed to validate the Malay version of the QIRC among refractive correction wearers in Malaysia using Rasch analysis. Methods The original 20-item QIRC was forward-backward translated into Malay in preparation for the Pilot Malay QIRC. The pilot version was pre-tested on 105 spectacle/contact lens-corrected myopes, and the results were reviewed and cross-culturally adapted to produce the Final Malay QIRC. The final version was self-administered to a new sample of 304 participants. A Rasch analysis was conducted to evaluate the items and response categories of the Pilot and the Final Malay QIRC. Test-retest reliability was also analysed on the Final Malay QIRC. Results Based on the pre-test findings, Rasch analysis revealed a multidimensional scale (functional scale [Items 1 to 13] and emotional scale [Items 14 to 20], which were separated in subsequent analysis), unordered response categories for the functional scale (Category 3 was collapsed into Category 2), one misfit item (Item 3 was removed) and six items required modification (Items 4, 6 to 9, and 12 were reworded and cross-culturally adapted). In the Final Malay QIRC, both the functional and emotional scales had ordered response categories, good person reliability (functional, 0.80; emotional, 0.81) and separation index (functional, 2.01; emotional, 2.06), well-targeted items (targeting precision: functional, 0.28 logits; emotional, 0.08 logits), and satisfactory fit statistics (infit and outfit mean square were less than 1.50 for all items). A noticeable differential item functioning (DIF) between genders was found in Item 18 (DIF contrast, 0.40 logits; p = 0.04). Test-retest reliability analysis demonstrated a high intraclass correlation coefficient (0.94) and Cronbach’s alpha (0.97) with a coefficient of repeatability of ±8.14 units. Conclusions The Malay-translated version of the QIRC has good psychometric characteristics for assessing the quality of life of refractive correction wearers in Malaysia. This translated and cross-culturally adapted Malay QIRC is a valid and reliable instrument that can be used in routine clinical practice.

Objective: The objective of this study is to translate the Lower Extremity Functional Scale (LEFS) into the Malay language and to validate the resulting version. Methods: A two-stage observational study was conducted. The LEFS was initially cross-culturally adapted to Malay language through double forward and backward translation. The finalized version of Malay LEFS (M-LEFS) was subsequently validated for both construct validity and criterion validity. Participants (n = 208) with normal lower limb condition and various lower limb conditions completed the M-LEFS. Results: Reliability of M-LEFS revealed excellent Cronbach's alpha value of 0.98. Construct validity, evaluated using exploratory factor analysis, exhibited good factor loadings (>0.6) of all 20 items. Interestingly, we extracted 2 components which was not reported elsewhere. With a cut-off point of 60, the sensitivity of the scale was 99% and the specificity was 81%. Conclusions: The M-LEFS had very good psychometric properties among the studied population. Further studies are needed to enhance these preliminary outcomes in Malaysia.

Introduction The availability of obesity specific quality of life measurement tool is limited. The Malay version of Impact of Weight on Quality of Life-Lite is an obesity specific quality of life questionnaire which has been translated for use in Malaysia. The aim of this study is to evaluate the validity and reliability of this questionnaire to measure quality of life among different body mass index (BMI) groups. Methods One hundred and twenty subjects with different BMI categories who attended an outpatient government clinic were recruited for this study. The translated Malay version of IWQOL-Lite was used to assess the impact of weight on quality of life of respondents. Content validity, criterion validity and construct validity were used to assess the questionnaire validity while internal consistencies and test-retest reliability were used to assess the questionnaire reliability. Results The Malay version of IWQOL-Lite showed good psychometric properties. The content validity was agreed upon by expert panels. The mean score of all IWQOL-Lite domains were able to discriminate between different BMI groups. Good internal consistency was demonstrated by Cronbach alpha of 0.936. Test-retest reliability ranged from 0.828 to 0.932. The physical function score (IWQOL-Lite) correlated positively with Physical Component Summary of Short Form-36 questionnaire. Exploratory factor analysis found that the questions loaded on their respective five domains. Conclusions The results suggested that the Malay version of IWQOL-Lite is a valid and reliable tool to measure quality of life among obese and overweight subjects in Malaysia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Pediatric anxiety disorders are the most common mental health disorders in the middle-childhood age group. The purpose of this study is to assess anxiety disorder symptoms, as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition (DSM-IV), in a large community sample of low socioeconomic level rural children and to investigate some of the psychometric properties (internal consistency, construct and convergent validity and items rated as often or always experienced) of the Malay version of the Spence Children's Anxiety Scale - Child version (SCAS-C). Method: Six hundred children aged 9-11 and 424 of their parents completely answered the child or parent versions of the SCAS. Results: Results indicated that the internal reliability of subscales were moderate to adequate. Significant correlations between child and parent reports supported the measure's concurrent validity. Additionally, anxiety levels in this Malaysian sample were lower than among South-African children and higher than among their Western peers. There were both similarities and differences between symptom items reported as often or always experienced by Malaysian students and by children from other cultures. Confirmatory factor analysis provided evidence of the existence of five inter-correlated factors for anxiety disorders based on SCAS-C. Conclusion: Although some of the instrument's psychometric properties deviated from those observed in some other countries, it nevertheless appears to be useful for assessing childhood anxiety symptoms in this country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The Decisional Balance Inventory is a tool used to measure propensity to maintain or change a habit which takes into consideration the perceived advantages and disadvantages. This study aimed to establish the validity and reliability of a Malay language version of the DBI for assessing inclination for change in smoking behavior among secondary school-going adolescents in Malaysia., Methods: We administered the MDBI to 669 secondary school students selected through multistage sampling. The sample consisted of 60.1% male (n=398) and 39.9% (n=264) female students, more than two-thirds (69.9%, n=463) of which were from rural areas. The majority of the respondents were aged 13-14 years [13 years, 36.4% (n=241), 14 years, 40.0% (n=265), 16 years, 23.6% (n=156)]. The construct validity of the MDBI was assessed using explanatory (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and the reliability of the MDBI via Cronbach's alpha., Results: EFA and parallel analysis extracted three factors in the MDBI that accounted for 65.4% of the observed variance, and this was supported by CFA. Internal consistency of the three factors ranged from 0.734 to 0.867, indicating acceptable reliability., Conclusions: The MDBI has good psychometric properties and is suitable for measuring smoking intention among Malaysian secondary school-going adolescents. However, it should continue to be tested to expand its usefulness and applicability among adolescents in other sociodemographic settings., Competing Interests: The authors have completed and submitted the ICMJE Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest and none was reported., (© 2022 Lim K.H. et al.)

Abstract: The original version of the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) was translated into a Malay version by the standard procedure and was then evaluated for its psychometric properties. Of 119 eligible patients, a total of 113 (95%) agreed to participate in this study. Ages ranged from 18 to 76 years and interviews were conducted between August, 2004 and November, 2004. The pain intensity items demonstrated high loading with one factor, whereas the pain interference items were loaded on another factor. Two factors explained 62% of the variance. Compared to the Karnofsky Performance Scale, the pain intensity scales had a moderate negative (Pearson''s) correlation (−0.520, P < 0.001) and the pain interference scales had a high negative correlation (−0.732, P < 0.001), showing good concurrent validity. The coefficient alpha of both subscales demonstrated good internal consistency of the items. The intraclass correlation coefficient for the test-retest stability was 0.61 for the pain intensity scale and 0.88 for the pain interference scale. The Malay version of the BPI is a reliable and valid instrument for cancer pain assessment and is comparable with the original version of the BPI in terms of structure and psychometric properties. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Communication is one of the fundamental skills in the medical profession. The Communication Skills Attitude Scale (CSAS) is a widely used questionnaire to measure the attitudes of medical students toward learning communication skills. It has been adapted and translated into many languages. The objective of this study was to adapt and translate the CSAS into the Malay language and determine its psychometric properties in medical students. This is a cross-sectional study involving 218 first-year Universiti Teknologi MARA students. Content validation, cross-cultural adaptation, translation, and face validation of the 26-item CSAS were performed according to established guidelines. Principal component analysis with direct oblimin rotation was used to determine the underlying structure of the CSAS-Malay. The reliability was assessed using Cronbach's α coefficient for internal consistency and using the intraclass correlation coefficient for the test-retest reliability. Although the contents of the CSAS-Malay and the original version were conceptually equivalent, item 11 was removed during the content validation stage due to a low item content validity index (I-CVI < 1.00). Two subscales were derived from the remaining 25 items, which were the Positive Attitude Scale and the Negative Attitude Scale. Items 1 and 15 were removed due to poor factor loadings. The total variance explained by the final two-factor solution with three items removed was 30.8%. Cronbach's α coefficients for both the Positive and Negative Attitude Scales in the final questionnaire were 0.815 and 0.614, respectively. It also showed a good reproducibility with intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) values of 0.725-0.950 for all the items. This study provided preliminary information about the psychometric properties of the CSAS-Malay. The final 23-item questionnaire had a good construct validity, an acceptable internal consistency, and at least a moderate test-retest reproducibility. It can be used to assess the attitudes of medical students toward learning communication skills. Future research to improve the generalizability of the questionnaire should include medical students from other universities with diverse backgrounds.

Introduction: The survival rate of female breast cancer survivors has been reported to be higher than other types of cancer in Malaysia. Nonetheless, breast cancer survivors face new challenges from unwanted side effects of treatment or management such as fatigue, psychological disturbance, or arm swelling, which can lead to the decline of quality of life (QOL). This study aims to adapt the Malay version of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast (FACT-B) to evaluate the QOL and to test its reliability and validity in Malaysian breast cancer survivors., Methods: The Malay version of the FACT-B, with Disabilities of Arms, Shoulders and Hands (DASH), and Patient Health Questionnaire Anxiety-Depression Scale (PHQ-ADS) were distributed to female breast cancer survivors which were recruited on a voluntary basis, from cancer support groups based in selected states in Malaysia. Reliability was assessed based on internal consistency (Cronbach's α), whereas concurrent validity was examined by comparing domains in FACT-B with DASH and PHQ-ADS. Finally, total scores of each domain were analysed between lymphedema and without lymphedema groups for known-group validity., Results: A total of 113 breast cancer survivors agreed to participate (response rate = 100%) in the study. Our results showed that the Cronbach's α value for Malay FACT-B is 0.88, and each domain ranged from 0.62 to 0.88. A strong correlation was found between the physical well-being domain of FACT-B with DASH. Meanwhile, the breast cancer scale (BCS) displayed significant correlation with the instrument, Patient Health Questionnaire- Anxiety Depression Scale (PHQ-ADS), indicating that multiple factors including psychological distress were measured in the BCS domain. Furthermore, the instrument was able to detect differences in physical, functional and QOL between participants from lymphedema and without lymphedema groups., Conclusion: The Malay version of the FACT-B demonstrated reliable properties and is effective in assessing QOL and can be applied in Malaysian breast cancer survivors.

Background: The need for client feedback in assessing healthcare services is widely recognized. However, little is known about the satisfaction of adolescent clients utilizing healthcare services in Malaysia. To the best of our knowledge, there is no validated instrument to measure the satisfaction of adolescent clients attending health clinics in Malaysia. This cross-sectional study aimed to determine the reliability of the Malay version of the Malaysian Ministry of Health's Adolescent Client Satisfaction Questionnaire among adolescents attending health clinics in northeastern Malaysia., Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in January 2019 among adolescents aged 10-19 years attending four designated health clinics in the northeastern state of Peninsular Malaysia. The test for Cronbach's α was performed to determine the internal consistency reliability., Results: There were a total of 85 adolescent clients involved in this study. The mean age of respondents was 15.6 years. The majority of respondents were female, Malay, students, and had attained a secondary level of education. The mean total satisfaction score was 78.35. The internal consistency reliability according to the Cronbach's α of the domain was 0.854, which is considered highly reliable. The corrected item-total correlation for the domain was acceptable as it was ≥0.4., Conclusion: The Malay version of the Malaysian Ministry of Health's Adolescent Client Satisfaction Questionnaire has excellent internal consistency reliability. Therefore, it may be recommended as a tool to measure the satisfaction level among adolescents attending health clinics in Malaysia.

Background: At present, the validity and reliability evidence of the Malay version of the Smartphone Addiction Scale (SAS-M) is only available by exploratory factor analysis (EFA). The aim of this study is to validate and determine the psychometric properties of the SAS-M by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA)., Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 323 medical students in Universiti Sains Malaysia. The students were given questionnaire forms consisting of socio-demographic information, the SAS-M and the Malay version of the Internet Addiction Test (MVIAT). The CFA was conducted using robust maximum likelihood estimator. The internal consistency reliability was determined by Raykov's rho coefficient. The concurrent validity was assessed by the Pearson's correlations between the factor scores of the SAS-M and the MVIAT., Results: The analysis showed the five-factor model of the SAS-M has an acceptable model fit after the inclusion of 12 correlated errors (SRMR = 0.067, RMSEA 0.059 (90% CI: 0.054, 0.065), CFI = 0.895, TLI = 0.882). The factor loadings ranged from 0.320 to 0.875. The internal consistency reliability was good (Raykov's rho = 0.713 to 0.858) and it showed good concurrent validity with the MVIAT., Conclusions: The CFA showed that the SAS-M is a valid and reliable self-administered questionnaire to measure the level of smartphone addiction among medical students.

Objective: The objective of this study is to translate the Lower Extremity Functional Scale (LEFS) into the Malay language and to validate the resulting version., Methods: A two-stage observational study was conducted. The LEFS was initially cross-culturally adapted to Malay language through double forward and backward translation. The finalized version of Malay LEFS (M-LEFS) was subsequently validated for both construct validity and criterion validity. Participants (n = 208) with normal lower limb condition and various lower limb conditions completed the M-LEFS., Results: Reliability of M-LEFS revealed excellent Cronbach's alpha value of 0.98. Construct validity, evaluated using exploratory factor analysis, exhibited good factor loadings (>0.6) of all 20 items. Interestingly, we extracted 2 components which was not reported elsewhere. With a cut-off point of 60, the sensitivity of the scale was 99% and the specificity was 81%., Conclusions: The M-LEFS had very good psychometric properties among the studied population. Further studies are needed to enhance these preliminary outcomes in Malaysia.