Home buyers' purchase decision framework for Klang Valley, Malaysia

To solve the property overhang issues in Malaysian housing market, housing developers require answers and solutions for housing attributes and services to increase their sales. However, previous researchers only focused on one aspect while studying house buyers' purchase-decision. So, to overcome the problems of property overhang and low satisfaction-level, this research aims to investigate the housingpurchase factors, homebuyers' demographic, purchase decision and satisfaction. The chosen research method is Quantitative method as there is a large sample of population. Finally, it has developed a Home Buyers' Purchase Decision Framework for the home buyers in Klang Valley. The researcher has collected data using SurveyMonkey, an online survey tool and has developed a questionnaire specifically to Klang Valley residents for their opinions on housing purchase factors, purchase decision and post-purchase satisfaction. A total of 417 questionnaires were returned from the 2,000 distributed. Then, the data was analyzed using logistic regression, multivariate analysis of variance and multiple linear regression. This result is then validated by 24 respondents to increase the accuracy. The findings show that home buyers’ purchase decision are influenced by all house purchase factors: house structure, spaces, finance, location, and neighbourhood. However, gender, marital status, and family income of home buyer do not influence house purchase decision and financial factors do not have significant influence on home buyers' satisfaction. The results will make contributions to the Malaysian residential housing industry, give the housing developers a wider comprehension of their consumers and lay a foundation for the housing industry to improve. For the recent years, this research is the only known study that develops homebuyers' purchase-decision framework for Klang Valley housing market. Thus, this study contributes to the knowledge of homebuyers decision-making processes for the housing market in Malaysia

Influence of location attributes on home buyers’ purchase decision

Owning a home at a bad location is detrimental to its market value. Besides, demographic forces have influenced the demand for housing over the past decades. This study identifies the type of location attributes and demographic characteristics’ influences on housing purchase decisions of home buyers in Iskandar Malaysia. This research intends to collect data through questionnaire. The respondents are the house owners of Taman Nusa Sentral. The data is then analysed with correlation to study the relationship between demographic and location variables. Most of the demographic characteristics, except Gender and Income, have significant influences on location facilities and services when it comes to house purchase decision. This study is able to overcome the problems of low house owning rate and oversupply and provides preferable location attributes to the housing developers

Prevalence of Nontraumatic Osteonecrosis of the Femoral Head and its Associated Risk Factors in the Chinese Population: Results from a Nationally Representative Survey

Background: Nontraumatic osteonecrosis of the femoral head (NONFH) is a debilitating disease that represents a significant financial burden for both individuals and healthcare systems. Despite its significance, however, its prevalence in the Chinese general population remains unknown. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of NONFH and its associated risk factors in the Chinese population. Methods: A nationally representative survey of 30,030 respondents was undertaken from June 2012 to August 2013. All participants underwent a questionnaire investigation, physical examination of hip, and bilateral hip joint X-ray and/or magnetic resonance imaging examination. Blood samples were taken after overnight fasting to test serum total cholesterol, triglyceride, and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) levels. We then used multivariate logistic regression analysis to investigate the associations between various metabolic, demographic, and lifestyle-related variables and NONFH. Results: NONFH was diagnosed in 218 subjects (0.725%) and the estimated NONFH cases were 8.12 million among Chinese people aged 15 years and over. The prevalence of NONFH was significantly higher in males than in females (1.02% vs. 0.51%, $\chi^2$ = 24.997, P < 0.001). Among NONFH patients, North residents were subjected to higher prevalence of NONFH than that of South residents (0.85% vs. 0.61%, $\chi^2$ = 5.847, P = 0.016). Our multivariate regression analysis showed that high blood levels of triglycerides, total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, and non-HDL-cholesterol, male, urban residence, family history of osteonecrosis of the femoral head, heavy smoking, alcohol abuse and glucocorticoid intake, overweight, and obesity were all significantly associated with an increased risk of NONFH. Conclusions: Our findings highlight that NONFH is a significant public health challenge in China and underscore the need for policy measures on the national level. Furthermore, NONFH shares a number of risk factors with atherosclerosis