Why Malay elderly female frequently engaged in religious activities during leisure?: a qualitative approach in Selangor

Diversified leisure involvement pose various health benefits to the elderly population. However, some elderly are too focus on doing a particular type of activity during their leisure time such as religious activity. This study aims to explore factors that could possibly contribute to the higher involvement in religious activity among the Malay ethnic elderly in Malaysia. In depth interviews were conducted, involving a total of 20 elderly aged 60 years and above with stratification by background characteristics. Each interview was conducted for an average of 15 to 30 minutes. They were purposively selected from two health clinics located in two different districts in the state of Selangor, representing an urban and a rural area. Majority of the elderly interviewed perceived that by engaging in religious activities such as prayer and reciting the Holy Quran or old Islamic scripture gives them serenity or calmness. Additionally, they also felt that involvement in such activities is very synonymous with being old and therefore one should be actively involved in religious activities with increasing age. In view of the lack of diversity of leisure involvement among the elderly and the passive and solitary nature of some of the religious activities, the elderly should be made aware of the importance of participating in other types of leisure activities especially physical activities. Although, they gain spiritual and social benefits from involving in religious activities, they also need to perform other form of activities that can improve the physical health status

How effective is the community medicine posting to cultivate teamwork, leadership and professionalism among medical students in Universiti Putra Malaysia?: enhancing best practice of future doctors

Introduction: This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of the Community Medicine Posting to instilling and cultivating teamwork, leadership and professionalism among the medical students in Universiti Putra Malaysia. Methods: Self-administered questionnaire consisted of sociodemographic characteristics, professionalism, teamwork and leadership sections was distributed to the year four medical students before and after the Community Medicine Posting. The posting lasted for 6 weeks and served as an intervention for the purpose of this study. Results: A total of 107 of medical students were involved with mean age of 22.64 ± 0.63 years old. The mean score for professionalism and leadership were significantly (p<0.001) increased following the posting, with leadership had the highest mean difference of 10.12. Conclusion: The study confirmed the effectiveness of the Community Medicine Posting to cultivate leadership and professionalism skills among the medical students, and surprisingly not effective towards teamwork. Professionalism and leadership are two essential skills towards medical best practices

Knowledge on maintaining cold chain for childhood immunisation vaccines at the primary healthcare setting Malaysia

Background: A proper maintenance of vaccine cold chain is important to achieve full benefit of childhood immunisation, apart from high remarkable childhood immunisation coverage and timely administration of vaccines. Ensuring an adequate knowledge among healthcare workers in maintaining vaccine cold chain system is crucial to ensure the efficacy of vaccines being administered and the effectiveness of the national immunisation programme. Objective: To determine the contributing factors towards knowledge related to vaccine cold chain maintenance among private healthcare assistants at primary care level in the district of Hulu Langat, Selangor. Materials and Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted from 1st February until 30th July 2016 among 493 healthcare assistants from 270 private clinics, which were randomly selected in Hulu Langat District, Selangor. A validated self-administered questionnaire was used which consisted of five sections on sociodemographic, duration of working experience in healthcare field, history of training related to maintaining vaccine cold chain, attitude towards maintaining vaccine cold chain and knowledge on maintaining vaccine cold chain. Data collected was analysed using IBM Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 22.0. Three stages of analysis were conducted; descriptive analysis (mean and median), bivariate analysis (Chi square (χ2) or Fisher Exact Test) and multivariate analysis (multiple logistic regression). In this study, P value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Result: The response rate was 91.3%. Only 235 (47.7%) respondents had good knowledge on vaccine cold chain. It was found that, there was a significant association between knowledge on maintaining vaccine cold chain and race (χ2=6.016, P=0.013), monthly income (χ2=12.024, P=0.007), duration of working experience in healthcare field (χ2=8.429, P=0.052), history of attending training related to maintaining vaccine cold chain (χ2=29.884, P=0.001) and attitude towards maintaining vaccine cold chain (χ2=86.087, P=0.001). Significant predictors for good knowledge on maintaining vaccine were; monthly income more than RM 2001 and above (AOR =4.50, 95% CI [1.410, 14.353]), history of attending training (AOR=3.25, 95% CI [1.796, 5.868]) and positive attitude towards maintaining vaccine cold chain (AOR=5.82, 95% CI [3.841, 8.8821]). Conclusion: The finding of this study indicate poor level of knowledge related to maintaining vaccine cold chain among private healthcare assistants in Hulu Langat District, Selangor with attitude towards maintaining vaccine cold chain being the most significant predictor towards good knowledge. Initiatives related to quality improvement activities in order to improve knowledge on maintaining vaccine cold chain should be properly planned which include continuous training and supervision as well as ensuring availability of educational materials may improve knowledge related to the maintenance of vaccine cold chain

Sociodemographic determinants of good hygience practices among the indigenous primary caregivers of under three children in Malaysia

Introduction: Poor hygiene practice is an important factor that lead to morbidity and mortality among young children which are common among the indigenous population due to the lack of access to health services and their unique beliefs and practices. This study aimed to identify the socio-demographic determinants of hygiene practices among the indigenous (known as Orang Asli in Malaysia) primary caregivers of children under the age of three in Malaysia. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 166 primary caregivers of Orang Asli children of below three years old in Kuala Langat District. Data was collected using a validated and pre-tested questionnaire via face-to-face interviews with individual respondents. The questionnaire consisted of two main sections: sociodemographics and hygiene practice. Results: A majority of the Orang Asli primary caregivers had good hygiene practices (78.9%). The number of children under five years old living at home was significantly associated with hygiene practice and it was the only significant determinant or predictor of good hygiene practice among the Orang Asli primary caregivers. Conclusion: The number of children under five years old living at home is an important factor to ensure good hygiene practices among the primary caregivers of Orang Asli children. This factor need to be taken into consideration in monitoring children health status by the health staff by emphasizing the importance of hygiene practice in the prevention of infectious diseases and malnutrition among Orang Asli children

Biopsychosocial determinants of depression among the male inmates in Malaysia

Introduction: The increasing prevalence of depression has been a major public health concern. Being a marginalized population put the inmates at risk of depression. The main objective of this study was to identify the determinants of depression among the inmates according to the biopsychosocial model. Methods: A cross sectional study involving 460 male inmates was conducted at a medium security prison in Seremban. Only Malaysian adult prisoners who have been convicted and had spent a minimum of three months in the prison were eligible for the study. They were selected using the probability proportional to size using stratified random sampling. Data was collected using validated and pre-tested questionnaire by face-to-face interviews, with depression was measured using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) Scale. The data were analyzed using IBM SPSS version 22 with a p-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: The results showed prevalence of depression were 40.70% (95% CI: 36.21-45.19) with its development being predicted by presence of communicable disease (AOR=2.145, 95% CI: 1.123-4.095), history of childhood abuse (AOR=1.762, 95% CI: 1.045-2.972), sentences of more than 5 years (AOR=3.801, 95% CI: 1.529-9.450), being non-Muslims (AOR=2.261, 95% CI: 1.461-3.497) and perceived stress (AOR=4.007, 95% CI= 2.610-6.151). Conclusions: This study revealed an alarmingly high prevalence of depression among the male inmates, with stress being the strongest risk factor. Reintegration of the prisoners into the community should be considered as part of the rehabilitation program to ensure continuation of psychiatric care and reduce relapsing

Risks of mental problems among medical students in a public university in Malaysia

Introduction: Mental problems have become increasingly important public health issue globally. This study aimed to determine the prevalence and factors associated with depression, anxiety, and stress among medical students in a public university in Malaysia. Methods: A total of 447 medical students were sampled by stratified proportion-ate to size sampling according to year of study. Validated self-administered questionnaire was used consisted of 5 sections namely, socio-demographic factors, social support received from family members and friends, presence of co-morbidity, previous history of resolved mental problem and Depression Anxiety Stress Scale DASS- 21. Data was analysed by using the statistical computer software ‘Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS)’ version 22 involving three levels of analysis (descriptive, chi square and multiple logistic regression). Results: Only 31.1% of the respondents were found to be depressed with mainly within the moderately depressed category, 53.9% had anxiety and 26% were having stress. Perceived social support received from family members was a significant predicting factor for depression, anxiety and stress. Conclusion: High proportion of depression, anxiety and level of stress among medical students were found. The stressful medical program is putting medical students at risk of mental problems. Parents and family members should be encouraged to be more involved in any related programs to promote better mental health and well-being of medical students

Leisure Time Physical Activity (LTPA) among female academicians in Universiti Putra Malaysia

Background: Leisure time is an important domain in life regardless of gender, social class and age. The objective of this study was to determine the pattern LTPA (Leisure Time Physical Activity) among female academicians in Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM). Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among female academicians in UPM, from December 2014 to March 2015. Respondents were randomly chosen by simple random sampling using IBM-SPSS version 22 software. A validated and reliable questionnaire was used for data collection. It consisted of five sections involving socio-demographic factors, time constraints (home and work place), physical activity, accessibility to leisure-related facilities (home and work place) and health status. Descriptive analysis, t-test, correlation and multivariate linear regression were employed to determine the predictors using enter method. The data was analysed using SPSS version 22.0 software. Result: A total of 654 respondents participated in the study yielding a response rate of 75%. The top five (5) physical activities with the highest level of involvement were evening walking 0.90±1.25; jogging 0.48±0.96, playing golf 0.14 ±0.52 and swimming 0.31±0.71. While, the five (5) least common physical activities reported were yoga 0.08±0.40, dancing zumba 0.18±0.57, aerobics 0.14±0.48, playing tennis 0.15±0.48 and cycling 0.21±0.55. There was a significant association between leisure in physical activity with time constraints at home (t=5.023, p<=0.001), time constraints at work place (t=-3.199, p<=0.001), health status (t=-6.363, p<=0.001) and accessibility to leisure- related facilities at home (t=-4.348, p<=0.001). No association was shown between leisure in physical activity and accessibility to leisure-related facilities at work place (t=0,947, p=0.344). Multiple Linear Regression analysis showed the predictors of physical activity were age ((B= -0.107, p<=0.001), facility at home (B=-1.030, p=0.002) and health status (B=-1.550, p<=0.001). Conclusion: The findings from this study showed that, female academicians were physically inactive; however several factors influenced this physical inactiveness

Predictors of practices related to dengue fever prevention among international students in Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang

Background: Dengue fever is a vector-borne, notifiable and preventable communicable disease. This study aim to determine the practices and the contributing factors related to dengue fever prevention among the international students in Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang. Materials and Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted using cluster sampling proportionate to size. Data were collected using a validated, self-administered questionnaire which consist of six sections namely socio-demographics factors, knowledge, attitude, influence of mass media, previous history of dengue fever and practices related to dengue fever prevention. Data was analyzed using IBM Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 21.0 comprising descriptive, bivariate and multivariate analysis and level of significance was set P<0.05. Result: A total of 641 respondents were involved with the response rate of 95.7%. The mean age of the respondents was 33.41±6.56 years old. Majority of the respondents were Asian (74.6%), male (65.5%), married (61.5%), had poor knowledge (45.9%), showed negative attitude (51.6%) and demonstrated good practices related to dengue fever prevention practices (53.7%). The significant predictor for poor practices were negative attitude towards practice (aOR=3.705, 95%CI=2.532–5.421, P<0.001), low influence of mass media towards practice (aOR=0.274, 95%CI=0.188–0.399, P<0.001), poor knowledge (aOR=0.169, 95%CI=0.090–0.319, P<0.001) and moderate knowledge on dengue fever (aOR=0.439, 95%CI=0.234–0.825, P<0.010). Conclusion: The findings revealed good practices among the respondents despite their poor knowledge and negative attitude towards dengue fever. Therefore knowledge based health education and cultivating positive attitude should be further reinforced to strengthen the dengue fever preventive practice

Understanding towards diabetes mellitus among rural adult community in Malaysia

Diabetes mellitus (DM) has shown an increasing trend globally and a growing burden of DM in Malaysia. This study aimed to explore the understanding of the rural adult community in Malaysia on DM. A cross-sectional study was conducted involving adult residents aged 18 years old and above, living in two separate villages in the district of Kuala Pilah, Negeri Sembilan. A pre-tested questionnaire was used for data collection using a face-to-face interview to ensure the accuracy and to avoid incompleteness of information given. Respondents’ understanding on DM was reflected by their knowledge, which was measured using a 3-point likert scale questionnaire consisted of 13 items. A total of 234 respondents consented for the study with mean age of 45.54 ± 17.61 years old. Majority were 45 years old and younger (56.8%), females (59.0%), had higher education level (76.9%), had individual monthly income of RM1500 and less (79.5%) and were not suffering from diabetes mellitus (81.2%). The median score for knowledge related to diabetes mellitus was 20.00 (IQR = 7), with 58.1% had a poor score below the median value. Only diabetic status was significantly determining understanding of the respondents on diabetes mellitus. The findings of the study indicated that majority of the rural community adult involved in the study had a remarkably low knowledge related to diabetes mellitus which was significantly related to their diabetic status. The existing health promotion programs could possibly limited among those already suffered from diabetes, which indicate the needs for a more extensive community-based education in order to reduce the prevalence of diabetes in the community

Hygiene-related knowledge, attitude and practice: An imperative study among primary caregivers of the under three aboriginal children in Malaysia

Background: Parental and caregivers' hygiene-related knowledge, attitude and practice are compelling factors in the prevention of stunting and malnutrition among the aboriginal children in Malaysia, which are highly modifiable. This study was conducted to explore the knowledge, attitude and practice related to hygiene among primary caregivers of the under three aboriginal (known as Orang Asli) children community in Malaysia. Methods: A total of 166 primary caregivers of the under three children of the aboriginal community in Kuala Langat district, Selangor were recruited. Data related to caregivers', child's and environmental factors were collected using a validated and reliable questionnaire, with knowledge, attitude and practice being the dependent variables. IBM Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 25.0 was used to analyse the data. Pearson's correlation was conducted to identify the relationship between continuous data. Multiple linear regression analysis was performed to determine the relationship between knowledge, attitude and practice related to hygiene, as well as the predictors. Results: The mean scores for knowledge, attitude and practice related to hygiene were 6.91 (2.12), 23.67 (3.16), 29.97 (3.55) and 43.05 (4.41), respectively. Significant moderate positive correlations were found between attitude and hygiene practice (r = 0.445, P < 0.001). Self-efficacy was significantly correlated with attitude (r = 0.442, P < 0.001) and practice (r = 0.557, P < 0.001), with every unit increase in self-efficacy will predict 0.281 and 0.536 increase in attitude (B = 0.281, 95% CI: 0.126-0.435) and practice (B = 0.536, 95% CI: 0.348-0.725) scores respectively. Conclusion: Moderate mean scores for hygiene related knowledge, attitude and practice were observed in this study, with self-efficacy being a significant predictor for both hygiene-related attitude and practice but not knowledge. The self-efficacy of the caregivers should be sustained through continuous health education and counselling, to ensure improved hygiene practice. Future related research should consider the mediating role of self-efficacy on attitude and practice