Factor associated with tobacco use among the adult population in Sarawak, Malaysia: a cross sectional study

Introduction: Consumption of tobacco in any form is one of the leading causes of preventable mortality. The World Health Organization recommends that it should be monitored regularly.  This study was designed to estimate the prevalence of tobacco use among the rural adult population in Sarawak and factors associated with it. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted among the adult population in Sarawak. Data were collected from ten villages in Kota Samarahan and Kuching Division by face to face interview using modified Global Adult Tobacco Survey questionnaire. Non-probability sampling method was adopted to select the villages. All the households of the villages were visited and an adult member was selected randomly from each house irrespective of the sex. After missing value imputation, 1000 data were analysed using statistical software SPSS 19.0 version. Results: Analysis showed that 30.9% of the respondents were current tobacco users and 11% were past tobacco users. The mean age (SD) at starting tobacco was 18.1 (6.48) years. The frequency of tobacco use was 14 times per day.  Hierarchical Logistic regression analysis revealed that age with male sex (OR=1. 064, 95% CI: 1.052, 1.076), secondary education (OR=-2.712; 95% CI: 1.122, 6.555), higher secondary and above (OR=3. 571; 95% CI: 1.641,7.774), occupation as business (OR=3. 152; 95% CI: 1.732, 5.735) and environmental exposure such as smoking at working place (OR=2. 754;95% CI: 1.895,4.002), coffee house (OR=2. 274;95% CI: 1.32,3.919) and at home (OR=1. 827;95% CI: 1.242,2.687) appeared to be  important predictors of tobacco use (p<0.05). Conclusion: A large proportion of males use tobacco products. Though tobacco use was negligible among females, but they would be potential users. Environmental exposure to tobacco appeared to be important predictors. Tobacco control campaigns should target banning of tobacco use in closed and open areas and also to intensify the monitoring of all forms of tobacco used by the population

Support and Practice of Smoke-Free Eating Places in Sarawak, Malaysia: A Structural Path Analysis

Background: Smoke-free eating places are effective in reducing exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS). Eateries should comply with implementing smoke-free eating-places under the Control of Tobacco Products Regulations 2018 in all open-air eating-places to reduce tobacco consumption to achieve the plan of having Malaysia free of tobacco by 2045. Objectives: To determine the impact of perceived knowledge on tobacco control law and SHS and attitude to support and practice smoke-free eating-places. Methods: A total of 620 respondents participated in this cross-sectional study. The eating-places were selected randomly from 5 administrative divisions of Sarawak. Data on perceived tobacco control law, knowledge of the effects of SHS on health and environment, attitude and support towards smoke-free eating-places, and current smoke-free eating-places were collected by face-to-face interview using a structured questionnaire. A partial least squares model was developed to examine the impact of knowledge, attitude, and support towards the smoke-free eating-places with the current practice of smoke-free eating-places. WarpPLS version 7.0 was used to examine the structural path and to test the hypothesis. Results: The structural path analysis revealed that perceived knowledge of tobacco control lawhad no impact on practicing smokefree eating-places (P > 0.05). However, the knowledge of the health and environmental effects of SHS had direct and indirect effects on attitude and support for smoke-free eating-places (P < 0.001). In addition, attitude towards smoke-free eating-places had a significant mediating effect on practicing smoke-free eating-places (P < 0.001). Besides that, supporting smoke-free eating-places had a significant direct impact on the practice of smoke-free eating-places (P < 0.001). Conclusions: Legislation and implementation of smoke-free eating-places along with the antismoking program and education efforts could support the cessation of tobacco use in all public places, including all eateries

Biomechanics Measurements in Archery

The purpose of this study is to measure the biomechanics parameters of the sport of archery and correlate these with the games performance. Archery is becoming a sport that may potentially success in the 2016 Olympic Games. Therefore, research in this sport can be directly relevant to athlete’s performance during games tournaments. This research is considered as a preliminary study to measure the biomechanics parameters that can be applied to the professional athlete. Biomechanics parameters such as muscle activity, heartbeat, balance and body posture as well as the draw force line were selected as important parameters related to the athlete’s performance. The subject in this study shot arrows on a force plate while a high speed video camera captured the arrow velocity, body posture and elbow angle. Furthermore, these parameters are then correlated with the point of the target or the archer’s performance in order to propose the correct shooting technique. The findings of this study are the draw force line angle, the most active muscle, the foot weight balance and the aiming concentration release time. All the results will help both coach and athlete to improve the performance of the sport, and especially assist both beginner level archers aiming to become expert and elite players

Factors Affecting Smoking Menthol Brand Cigarette Among The Adult Population In Sarawak, Malaysia

Menthol brand cigarette has been found to be linked with early initiation of smoking and addiction of nicotine. This study was designed to find out the factors associated with smoking menthol brand cigarettes among adult population in Sarawak. This was a cross-sectional study conducted among the adult population in Sarawak. Data were collected from ten villages in Kota Samarahan and Kuching Division by face to face interview using modified Global Adult Tobacco Survey questionnaire. Non-probability purposive sampling method was adopted to select the villages. All the households of the villages were visited, and an adult member was selected randomly from each household irrespective of sex. After missing value imputation, 1000 data sets were analysed using statistical software SPSS 19.0 version. Analysis showed that 28.8% of the respondents were current smokers, and 7.8% were past smokers. Among the smokers, 56.3% were habituated with menthol brand cigarette. Logistic regression analysis revealed that age at initiation of smoking before 15 years of age (OR=11. 68, 95% CI: 4.25, 32.10), smoking within five minutes of wake up from sleep (OR=3. 20, 95% CI: 1.35, 7.54), nature of job as business (OR=4. 81, 95% CI: 2.13, 10.86) and service holders (OR= 3.85, 95% CI: 2.07, 7.16) and family size 5 and above (OR=2. 22, 95% CI: 1.25, 3.94) appeared to be important determinants of smoking any menthol brand cigarette (p<0.05). Menthol is a prominent design feature to attract and retain younger smokers. It does not necessarily make the transition from experimenting with cigarettes, but to encourage early smokers to become a confirmed smoker. So, anti-tobacco public health programme should focus on age-specific community approach

Factor associated with tobacco use among the adult population in Sarawak, Malaysia: a cross sectional study

Introduction: Consumption of tobacco in any form is one of the leading causes of preventable mortality. The World Health Organization recommends that it should be monitored regularly. This study was designed to estimate the prevalence of tobacco use among the rural adult population in Sarawak and factors associated with it. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted among the adult population in Sarawak. Data were collected from ten villages in Kota Samarahan and Kuching Division by face to face interview using modified Global Adult Tobacco Survey questionnaire. Non-probability sampling method was adopted to select the villages. All the households of the villages were visited and an adult member was selected randomly from each house irrespective of the sex. After missing value imputation, 1000 data were analysed using statistical software SPSS 19.0 version. Results: Analysis showed that 30.9% of the respondents were current tobacco users and 11% were past tobacco users. The mean age (SD) at starting tobacco was 18.1 (6.48) years. The frequency of tobacco use was 14 times per day. Hierarchical Logistic regression analysis revealed that age with male sex (OR=1. 064, 95% CI: 1.052, 1.076), secondary education (OR=-2.712; 95% CI: 1.122, 6.555), higher secondary and above (OR=3. 571; 95% CI: 1.641,7.774), occupation as business (OR=3. 152; 95% CI: 1.732, 5.735) and environmental exposure such as smoking at working place (OR=2. 754;95% CI: 1.895,4.002), coffee house (OR=2. 274;95% CI: 1.32,3.919) and at home (OR=1. 827;95% CI: 1.242,2.687) appeared to be important predictors of tobacco use (p<0.05). Conclusion: A large proportion of males use tobacco products. Though tobacco use was negligible among females, but they would be potential users. Environmental exposure to tobacco appeared to be important predictors. Tobacco control campaigns should target banning of tobacco use in closed and open areas and also to intensify the monitoring of all forms of tobacco used by the population

High growth rate using new type demand feeding system with image processing program and fish behavior.

Demand feeding system serves feeds to fish, when fish switch on feeders. Although demand feeding system has advantages, it still has problems, e.g. hierarchy problem of fish school and system learning period problem for fish. New type of demand feeding system was develop to solve these problems using fish behaviour and image processing system. At first, behaviour experiment was conducted using the image processing software Roborealm to obtain the optimum parameter for computer program. Through the behaviour experiment, two typical behaviour patterns were detected. When fish was hungry, fish group came to the water surface (H: parameter >63%), and when fish was not hungry, fish came to bottom (L: <45%) of fish tank. These two parameters were obtained and were put into the computer program in the workstation. HD Wi-Fi camera continuously recorded the real time fish behaviour in fish tank, and when fish group came to above the “H”, then the command was sent from workstation to microcomputer to send the order to feeding device to feed on. The results of feeding experiment showed this system could provide pellets to fish day and night time equally following fish behaviour. This feeding system could provide the pellets to fish based on fish requirements. The growth rate was higher than other feeding system (timer feeder and demand feeder using an infrared light sensor)

Serovar diversity of Leptospira sp. infecting wild rodents in Sarawak, Malaysia

Leptopsirosis is a zoonotic disease with global distribution and rodents, in particular rats, have been identified as the main reservoir host. A study was conducted to determine the prevalence of antibodies against Leptospira sp. in wild rodents caught in selected areas of Sibu, Sarikei and Kapit in Sarawak during the period of July 2011 to May 2014. In total, 241 sera samples were collected from rodents caught from these three administrative divisions in Sarawak. Ninety-eight rodents (40.7%) were positive with antibody titre >1:50 by microscopic agglutination test (MAT) against 13 out of 20 common local leptospiral serovars tested. Sera of rodents caught in Sibu, Kapit and Sarikei divisions were positive at 43.9%, 37.5% and 36.4%, respectively. The top five serovars detected were: Autumnalis (25.5%), Tarassovi (23.5%), Bataviae (15.3%), Hebdomadis (8.2%) and Celledoni (7.2%). The main species of rodent positive for antibodies against Leptopsira sp. were Sundamys muelleri (50.0%), Rattus rattus (37.5%), Callociurus notatus (35.6%) and Rattus exulans (32.6%). This study indicates that leptospiral antibodies are prevalent amongst wild rodents in central Sarawak, which could be translated as high leptospiral carriage. The close interaction that exists between the local community and the environment could potentially propagate the transmission of Leptospira sp. to human in these areas. This study also provided essential information about local circulating Leptospira serovars, which could be useful for eventual prevention measures in disease transmissio

Obesity-associated Hypertension among Primary School Children in Sarawak : A Cross-sectional Study

Hipertensi merupakan isu kesihatan awam yang penting yang memberi kesan ke atas populasi kanak-kanak. Tujuan kajian ini adalah untuk menentukan prevalens tekanan darah tinggi dan kaitannya dengan obesiti di kalangan kanak-kanak berumur 6-12 tahun di divisyen Kuching, Sarawak. Ia merupakan kajian keratan rentas menggunakan persampelan rawak berlapis. Data dikumpulkan menggunakan alat antropometrik dan monitor tekan darah digital. Data dianalisa menggunakan SPSS versi 20. Sejumlah 1314 responden mengambil bahagian. Sejumlah 36.9% dari jumlah sampel didapati mempunyai berat badan berlebihan dan obes, 31% mempunyai lemak yang lebih dan obes, 29% mempunyai ukur lilit pinggang yang abnormal dan 32.8% mempunyai ratio pinggang-tinggi yang abnormal. Sebanyak 22.1% responden didapati berada dalam peringkat pra tekanan darah tinggi dan tekanan darah tinggi. Terdapat perbezaan signifikan antara lelaki dan perempuan dalam berat badan berlebihan dan obes, lemak badan yang berlebihan dan obes dan ratio pinggang-tinggi. Pribumi Sarawak didapati mempunyai risiko yang paling tinggi dalam penyakit darah tinggi, dan paling ramai dalam berat badan dan lemak badan yang berlebihan dan obes, dan juga ukur lilit pinggang dan ratio pinggangtinggi yang abnormal. Bagi mereka yang mempunyai penyakit darah tinggi, mereka didapati mempunyai berat badan dan lemak badan yang berlebihan dan obes, dan juga ukur lilit pinggang dan ratio pinggang-tinggi yang abnormal. Pemeriksaan untuk faktor risiko yang berpotensi harus dijalankan di peringkat umur yang muda untuk mengurangkan masalah penyakit kronik di dewasa. Ukuran tekanan darah harus dilakukan dalam pemeriksaan fizikal rutin untuk mengenalpasti kanak-kanak yang berisiko tinggi untuk rujukan selanjutnya

Sentinel surveillance for human enterovirus 71 in Sarawak, Malaysia: lessons from the first 7 years

BACKGROUND: A major outbreak of human enterovirus 71-associated hand, foot and mouth disease in Sarawak in 1997 marked the beginning of a series of outbreaks in the Asia Pacific region. Some of these outbreaks had unusually high numbers of fatalities and this generated much fear and anxiety in the region. METHODS: We established a sentinel surveillance programme for hand, foot and mouth disease in Sarawak, Malaysia, in March 1998, and the observations of the first 7 years are described here. Virus isolation, serotyping and genotyping were performed on throat, rectal, vesicle and other swabs. RESULTS: During this period Sarawak had two outbreaks of human enterovirus 71, in 2000 and 2003. The predominant strains circulating in the outbreaks of 1997, 2000 and 2003 were all from genogroup B, but the strains isolated during each outbreak were genetically distinct from each other. Human enterovirus 71 outbreaks occurred in a cyclical pattern every three years and Coxsackievirus A16 co-circulated with human enterovirus 71. Although vesicles were most likely to yield an isolate, this sample was not generally available from most cases and obtaining throat swabs was thus found to be the most efficient way to obtain virological information. CONCLUSION: Knowledge of the epidemiology of human enterovirus 71 transmission will allow public health personnel to predict when outbreaks might occur and to plan interventions in an effective manner in order to reduce the burden of disease

Antimicrobial resistance among migrants in Europe: a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Rates of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) are rising globally and there is concern that increased migration is contributing to the burden of antibiotic resistance in Europe. However, the effect of migration on the burden of AMR in Europe has not yet been comprehensively examined. Therefore, we did a systematic review and meta-analysis to identify and synthesise data for AMR carriage or infection in migrants to Europe to examine differences in patterns of AMR across migrant groups and in different settings. METHODS: For this systematic review and meta-analysis, we searched MEDLINE, Embase, PubMed, and Scopus with no language restrictions from Jan 1, 2000, to Jan 18, 2017, for primary data from observational studies reporting antibacterial resistance in common bacterial pathogens among migrants to 21 European Union-15 and European Economic Area countries. To be eligible for inclusion, studies had to report data on carriage or infection with laboratory-confirmed antibiotic-resistant organisms in migrant populations. We extracted data from eligible studies and assessed quality using piloted, standardised forms. We did not examine drug resistance in tuberculosis and excluded articles solely reporting on this parameter. We also excluded articles in which migrant status was determined by ethnicity, country of birth of participants' parents, or was not defined, and articles in which data were not disaggregated by migrant status. Outcomes were carriage of or infection with antibiotic-resistant organisms. We used random-effects models to calculate the pooled prevalence of each outcome. The study protocol is registered with PROSPERO, number CRD42016043681. FINDINGS: We identified 2274 articles, of which 23 observational studies reporting on antibiotic resistance in 2319 migrants were included. The pooled prevalence of any AMR carriage or AMR infection in migrants was 25·4% (95% CI 19·1-31·8; I2 =98%), including meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (7·8%, 4·8-10·7; I2 =92%) and antibiotic-resistant Gram-negative bacteria (27·2%, 17·6-36·8; I2 =94%). The pooled prevalence of any AMR carriage or infection was higher in refugees and asylum seekers (33·0%, 18·3-47·6; I2 =98%) than in other migrant groups (6·6%, 1·8-11·3; I2 =92%). The pooled prevalence of antibiotic-resistant organisms was slightly higher in high-migrant community settings (33·1%, 11·1-55·1; I2 =96%) than in migrants in hospitals (24·3%, 16·1-32·6; I2 =98%). We did not find evidence of high rates of transmission of AMR from migrant to host populations. INTERPRETATION: Migrants are exposed to conditions favouring the emergence of drug resistance during transit and in host countries in Europe. Increased antibiotic resistance among refugees and asylum seekers and in high-migrant community settings (such as refugee camps and detention facilities) highlights the need for improved living conditions, access to health care, and initiatives to facilitate detection of and appropriate high-quality treatment for antibiotic-resistant infections during transit and in host countries. Protocols for the prevention and control of infection and for antibiotic surveillance need to be integrated in all aspects of health care, which should be accessible for all migrant groups, and should target determinants of AMR before, during, and after migration. FUNDING: UK National Institute for Health Research Imperial Biomedical Research Centre, Imperial College Healthcare Charity, the Wellcome Trust, and UK National Institute for Health Research Health Protection Research Unit in Healthcare-associated Infections and Antimictobial Resistance at Imperial College London