CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY ON ADVERSE PREGNANCY OUTCOMES AMONG FEMALE HEALTHCARE WORKERS IN KUCHING, SARAWAK

The weight of occupational risk on women in addition to men, is on their fecundity. NIOSH lists disorders of reproduction as one of the top ten leading work-related diseases and injuries. Nevertheless, women in the workforce is increasing and in healthcare, females make up the majority. This research is to observe the occurrences of adverse pregnancy outcomes among female healthcare workers in relation to their work schedules and its significance in relation to non-healthcare workers. Across-sectional study was carried out using a questionnaire with 469 respondents; 339 healthcare and 130 non-healthcare workers, reporting 564 pregnancies. In this study, adverse pregnancy outcomes among female healthcare workers is significantly higher than non-healthcare workers. There are no significant findings between healthcare and non-healthcare workers with respect to the types of adverse pregnancy outcomes and the work schedule. However, from the respondents' lifetime pregnancy outcome, we find that complete miscarriage occurred more frequently among healthcare workers who work on shift. Healthcare workers do experience a higher risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes, commonly occurring among those who work on shift/on-call

The measurement of mental fatigue following an overnight on-call duty among doctors using electroencephalogram

This study aimed to measure the spectral power differences in the brain rhythms among a group of hospital doctors before and after an overnight on-call duty. Thirty-two healthy doctors who performed regular on-call duty in a tertiary hospital in Sarawak, Malaysia were voluntarily recruited into this study. All participants were interviewed to collect relevant background information, followed by a self-administered questionnaire using Chalder Fatigue Scale and electroencephalogram test before and after an overnight on-call duty. The average overnight sleep duration during the on-call period was 2.2 hours (p<0.001, significantly shorter than usual sleep duration) among the participants. The mean (SD) Chalder Fatigue Scale score of the participants were 10.8 (5.3) before on-call and 18.4 (6.6) after on-call (p-value < 0.001). The theta rhythm showed significant increase in spectral power globally after an overnight on-call duty, especially when measured at eye closure. In contrast, the alpha and beta rhythms showed reduction in spectral power, significantly at temporal region, at eye closure, following an overnight on-call duty. These effects are more statistically significant when we derived the respective relative theta, alpha, and beta values. The finding of this study could be useful for development of electroencephalogram screening tool to detect mental fatigue

Cross Sectional Study on Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes among Female Healthcare Workers in Kuching, Sarawak

The weight of occupational risk on women in addition to men, is on their fecundity. NIOSH lists disorders of reproduction as one of the top ten leading work-related diseases and injuries. Nevertheless, women in the workforce is increasing and in healthcare, females make up the majority. This research is to observe the occurrences of adverse pregnancy outcomes among female healthcare workers in relation to their work schedules and its significance in relation to non-healthcare workers. Across-sectional study was carried out using a questionnaire with 469 respondents; 339 healthcare and 130 non-healthcare workers, reporting 564 pregnancies. In this study, adverse pregnancy outcomes among female healthcare workers is significantly higher than non-healthcare workers. There are no significant findings between healthcare and non-healthcare workers with respect to the types of adverse pregnancy outcomes and the work schedule. However, from the respondents' lifetime pregnancy outcome, we find that complete miscarriage occurred more frequently among healthcare workers who work on shift. Healthcare workers do experience a higher risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes, commonly occurring among those who work on shift/on-call

Pegylated granulocyte colony stimulating factor versus nonpegylated granulocyte colony stimulating factor for patients after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (Protocol)

This is the protocol for a review and there is no abstract. The objectives are as follows: To compare the efficacy and safety of pegylated G-CSF versus non-pegylated G-CSF for patients after HSCT

Workplace bullying and its association with depression and self-esteem amongst health care workers in selected hospitals in Sarawak

ABSTRACT Introduction: Bullying at the workplace has been recognised as an increasing problem amongst healthcare staff, and also associated with a low self-esteem and depression. This study was aimed to determine the proportion of bullying amongst healthcare workers in selected hospitals in Sarawak and its association between depression and self-esteem. Methods: A cross sectional study using selfadministered questionnaires was done in three selected hospitals in Sarawak. The questionnaires were distributed to doctors, nurses and medical assistants during their teaching sessions. The questionnaires consisted of socio-demographics, Negative Acts Questionnaire, Beck Depression Inventory, and Rosenberg Self-Esteem scale. A total of 426 samples were included for analysis, after discarding 72 samples due to grossly missing information. The response rate was 71.1%. Results: Majority of the respondents were of the age group 25 to 29 years old. Nurses comprised 45.5% of the study population, followed by doctors (37.8%), whilst the rest were medical assistants and midwives. Based on the definition of bullying as at least two occurrences of any negative act either on a weekly or daily basis,20.7% of respondents had been bullied. 22.5% of the study group had mild to severe depression, and 8.5% had a low self-esteem. There was an association between depression and being bullied, with a p value of <0.001. Those healthcare workers who had a low self-esteem were associated with higher exposure to bullying, with a p value <0.001. The factors associated with bullying werethe younger age group, shorter length of service, shifting work, non-managerial position and the designation as a doctor. Discussion: A significant proportion of healthcare workers had been bullied, and bullying exposure was shown to be associated with depression and low selfesteem. Hence, regular screening for bullying, depression and low self-esteem should be done to enable early intervention

Evaluation of I-Kelahiran, A Health Informatics System in Sabah State Health Department – A Structural Equation Modeling

I-Kelahiran (Inovasi-Kelahiran) is a health informatics system that manages birth and immunisation data, developed and implemented in Sabah to address birth discrepancy, delayed reporting of high-risk pregnancy, and immunization coverage. This study aimed to evaluate the conceptual framework and the factors that determine the information system success of I-Kelahiran among the nurses in the Sabah State Health Department. It was a cross-sectional web-based study, conducted in 21 hospitals and 292 health clinics. A total of 1.200 nurses participated, with a mean age of 31.96 years (SD=7.761) and the majority of them were community nurses. About 93.8% of them had good computer literacy. Individual Impact (p=0.011) and Organizational Impact (p=0.0019) were seen to have significant association towards the nurse's place of work, and computer literacy had a significant association towards organizational impact (p=0.046). A structural equation modeling indicated that only perceived ease of use & importance of system are good predictors in outcome evaluation of I-Kelahiran while Individual Impact & Effectiveness are good domains to measure the overall outcome of I-Kelahiran (Chi-Square/df=2.850, Comparative Fit Index [CFI]= 0.991, Tucker-Lewis Index [TLI]= 0.989, Root Mean Square Error Of Approximation [RMSEA]= 0.939). Future study is needed to study the complex external factors that lead to this information success model in Malaysi

Systematic review of pre-clinical chronic myeloid leukaemia

The author would like to correct the error in the publication of the original article. The corrected detail is given below for your reading: The first sentence in the last paragraph on page 481 in ‘‘Discussion’’ section under the subheading “Overall completeness and applicability of evidence” should read as “Clonal haematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP) was first named in 2015 [27].

Systematic Review of Normal Subjects Harbouring BCR-ABL1 Fusion Gene

The treatment of chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) requires quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) to monitor BCR-ABL1 in International Scale (IS). Some normal subjects were found to harbour BCR-ABL1. We performed a systematic review on normal subjects harbouring BCR-ABL1. A literature search was done on July 16, 2017 using EBSCOhost Research Databases interface and Western Pacific Region Index Medicus. Two authors selected the studies, extracted the data, and evaluated the quality of studies using the modified Appraisal Tool for Cross-Sectional Studies independently. The outcomes were prevalence, level of BCR-ABL1IS, proportion, and time of progression to CML. The initial search returned 4,770 studies. Eleven studies, all having used convenient sampling, were included, with total of 1,360 subjects. Ten studies used qualitative PCR and one used qPCR (not IS). The mean prevalence of M-BCR was 5.9, 15.5, and 15.9% in cord blood/newborns/infants (CB/NB/I) (n = 170), children (n = 90), and adults (n = 454), respectively, while m-BCR was 15, 26.9, and 23.1% in CB/NB/I (n = 786), children (n = 67), and adults (n = 208), respectively. No study reported the proportion and time of progression to CML. Nine studies were graded as moderate quality, one study as poor quality, and one study as unacceptable. The result of the studies could neither be inferred to the general normal population nor compared. Follow-up data were scarc