Objective: To identify the cultural beliefs about the causes of cleft among parents of patients with nonsyndromic cleft lip and/or palate in a multiethnic society in Malaysia and the difficulties encountered in receiving cleft treatment.
Design: A descriptive cross-sectional multicenter study based on a study questionnaire was conducted of parents of patients with cleft lip and/or palate.
Setting: Three centers providing cleft care from different regions in Malaysia: the national capital of Kuala Lumpur, east coast of peninsular Malaysia, and East Malaysia on the island of Borneo.
Participants: Parents/primary caregivers of patients with cleft lip and/or palate.
Results: There were 295 respondents from different ethnic groups: Malays (58.3%), indigenous Sabah (30.5%), Chinese (7.1%), Indian (2.4%), and indigenous Peninsular Malaysia and Sarawak (1.7%). Malay participants reported that attributing causes of cleft to God's will, superstitious beliefs that the child's father went fishing when the mother was pregnant or inheritance. Sabahans parents reported that clefts are caused by maternal antenatal trauma, fruit picking, or carpentry. The Chinese attribute clefts to cleaning house drains, sewing, or using scissors. Cultural background was reported by 98.3% of participants to pose no barrier in cleft treatment. Those from lower socioeconomic and educational backgrounds were more likely to encounter difficulties while receiving treatment, which included financial constraints and transportation barriers.
Conclusion: There is a wide range of cultural beliefs in the multiethnic society of Malaysia. These beliefs do not prevent treatment for children with cleft. However, they face challenges while receiving cleft treatment, particularly financial constraints and transportation barriers. Such barriers are more likely experienced by parents from lower income and lower education backgrounds.
Keywords: beliefs; cleft lip/palate; culture.