Survival study and prognostic factors of ovarian cancer registered in a teaching hospital in Malaysia

Ovarian cancer is one of the highest causes of death among female population in Malaysia. A retrospective cohort study among 127 ovarian cancer patients registered in one of the teaching hospital in Malaysia was conducted from 1st January 2002 until 31st December 2011. The objective of this study was to determine the median survival time, five year survival probability and prognostic factors of ovarian cancer patients. Only ovarian cancer patients were selected with strict inclusion and exclusion criteria. Data was analyzed using Kaplan-Meier Survival analysis and Cox proportional hazard regression analysis. The results showed that the overall five-year survival probability of ovarian cancer was 35.2% (95%CI: 26.3, 44.3) with 38 month (95%CI: 25.7, 50.1) median survival time. After adjustment for potential cofounder, significant prognostic factors of ovarian cancer were observed in FIGO stage (HR: 2.53; 1.44, 4.45), loss of appetite (HR: 1.95; 1.23, 3.11) and presence of pleural effusion (HR: 1.98; 1.19, 3.30). Overall, the survival probabilities of ovarian cancer were low and further actions must be taken to improve the survival among advanced cancer patient

Malay version of exercise self-efficacy: a confirmatory analysis among malaysians with type 2 diabetes mellitus

Exercise self-efficacy (ESE) is one of the psychological constructs in the Transtheoretical Model (TTM). The objective of the present study is to assess the validity and reliability of the Malay version of Exercise self-efficacy scale (ESE-M) among Malaysians with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). A cross-sectional study design with convenience sampling method using a self-administered questionnaire was carried out. Participants were invited to complete the ESE-M with 18 items. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted and composite reliability (CR) was computed using Mplus 8. A total of 331 Malaysians with T2DM with a mean age of 63 years old (Standard Deviation = 0.57) completed the questionnaire. Most of the participants were male (52%) and Malay (89.4%). Two initial CFA models (single factor and three factors) of ESE-M scale were tested and they did not fit to the data well. Several re-specifications of the models were conducted. The final model for the ESE-M showed improvement on the value of model fit indices for the single factor model (comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.952, Tucker and Lewis index (TLI) = 0.938, standardised root mean square (SRMR) = 0.044, root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.054) and three factors model (CFI = 0.891, TLI = 0.863, SRMR = 0.049, RMSEA = 0.081). The CR for the self-efficacy factor was 0.921 (single factor), while CR for internal feelings, competing demands and situational (three factors) were 0.762, 0.818 and 0.864, respectively. The final model of single factor ESE-M showed better fit to the data compared to the three factors ESE-M. This indicated that the single factor ESE-M is more suitable to be adopted for future study among Malaysians with T2DM

Effects of technology-supported brain breaks videos on exercise self-efficacy among type 2 diabetes mellitus Malaysians

The technology supported Brain Breaks (BB) videos are a series of structured, web-based physical activity (PA) videos designed to promote learning and health. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of BB videos on exercise self-efficacy (ESE) among type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients using the Malay-versioned exercise self-efficacy scale (ESE-M). The study used a double-blind research design and was randomised into two groups: (1) The Technology Supported BB intervention group, and (2) the control group. 70 T2DM patients with a mean age of 57.6 years (SD= 8.5) were recruited from Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia. For 4 months, participants in the intervention group were required to undertake PA every day using the BB videos (approximately 10 min). Both groups completed the ESE-M at pre-intervention, the end of the first month, the second month, the third month, and post-intervention. For the data analysis, a mixed factorial analysis of variance was used. The results showed that at the end of the intervention, the two groups’ ESE was significantly different (p < 0.001). From pre- to post-intervention, the intervention group’s ESE-M mean scores improved significantly. Technology-supported BB videos may be an effective strategy for improving ESE in T2DM patients

Survival probabilities and prognostic factors of pregnancy-associated breast cancer in Malaysian women

Objective Pregnancy-associated breast cancer (PABC) is a rare cancer. This study aimed to determine the survival probabilities and prognostic factors in patients with PABC. Methods A retrospective cohort study was conducted in two tertiary care hospitals in Kota Bharu. We included all patients with breast cancer who were diagnosed by histopathology while pregnant or within 2 years post-partum from 2001 through 2020. We matched patients with PABC to non-pregnant patients with breast cancer by age and year of diagnosis. The data were analyzed using Cox proportional hazard regression. Results A total of 35 cases of PABC and 70 non-PABC controls were recruited. The 3-year, 5-year, and 10-year survival probabilities for patients with PABC were 58.6%, 47.54%, and 38.03%, respectively. The patients with PABC had a non-significant difference in survival probabilities compared with non-PABC patients. The significant prognostic factors of PABC were age (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 0.91; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.86–0.96; P=0.001), advanced stage of cancer (aHR, 9.97; 95% CI, 3.96–25.2; P<0.001), and no surgery (aHR, 3.16; 95% CI, 1.01–9.85; P=0.047). Pregnancy was not found to be an independent factor in the prognosis of PABC (aHR, 0.72; 95% CI, 0.39–1.28; P=0.266). Conclusion Women diagnosed with PABC had similar survival probabilities compared with non-PABC patients. Pregnancy was not an independent prognostic factor for breast cancer. This information can be useful when women with breast cancer are counseled and supported with the option of beginning treatment with pregnancy continuation

Community Health Survey of Residents Living Near a Solid Waste Open Dumpsite in Sabak, Kelantan, Malaysia

The management of waste materials is a serious problem worldwide, especially in urbanizing countries like Malaysia. This study was conducted to compare the prevalence of health symptoms and diseases diagnosed among residents exposed to the solid waste open dumpsite in the suburb of Sabak with the non-exposed community. Research related to exposure to solid waste dumping with complete health problems has never been combined in one study. A comparative cross-sectional study was conducted. The exposed group included residents within a 1 km radius and the non-exposed group included residents between a 2.5 and 4.0 km radius from the dumpsite. The selected residents were interviewed using validated, structured questionnaires. A total of 170 residents from the exposed group and 119 residents from the non-exposed group were selected. The mean (SD) duration time of residence was 22.6 (18.9) years for the exposed group and 15.0 (12.0) years for the non-exposed group. Dumpsite exposure was significantly associated with sore throat (adjusted odd ratio (AOR) 1.88; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.05, 3.38; p = 0.031), diabetes mellitus (AOR 2.84; 95% CI: 1.10, 7.30; p = 0.021) and hypertension (AOR 2.56; 95% CI: 1.27, 5.13; p = 0.006). This study provides evidence that the unsanitary solid waste disposal in Malaysia is hazardous to the health of residents in the surrounding 1 km, and efforts are needed to minimize the hazards

Prognostic factors of nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients in a tertiary referral hospital: a retrospective cohort study

Abstract Background Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) exhibits a distinctive racial and geographic distribution. Many studies have reported varied significant prognostic factors affect the survival of NPC patients. Hence, this current study aimed to identify the prognostic factors of NPC patients registered in a tertiary referral hospital. Methods The records of one hundred and thirty-four NPC cases confirmed by histopathology in Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) between 1st January 1998 and 31st December 2007 that fulfilled the inclusion and exclusion criteria were retrospectively reviewed. Simple and multiple Cox proportional hazard regression analyses were performed to determine the significant prognostic factors affect the survival of NPC patients. Results The mean (SD) age of patients diagnosed with NPC was 48.12 (15.88) years with Malay was the largest ethnic group compared to other ethnicities. Most of patients had locally advanced stage IV (40.6%) and stage III (39.1%) of NPC. The overall median survival time of NPC patients was 31.30 months (95% CI 23.76, 38.84). The significant prognostic factors that influenced the survival of NPC patients were older age (HR 1.03, 95% CI 1.01, 1.04), metastases (HR 2.52, 95% CI 1.01, 6.28) and stage IV disease (HR 4.50, 95% CI 1.66, 9.88). Conclusion Older age, the presence of metastases and late stage are significant prognostic factors that influence the survival of NPC. Therefore, it is important to provide education to public and to raise awareness to diagnose NPC at an earlier stage and before the presence of metastases

Additional file 1 of Improving malaria preventive practices and pregnancy outcomes through a health education intervention: A randomized controlled trial

Additional file 1: Study Dataset. Spreadsheet of the raw data collected and analyzed in this study

Burden of Bacterial Meningitis: A Retrospective Review on Laboratory Parameters and Factors Associated with Death in Meningitis, Kelantan Malaysia

To describe the clinical characteristics and the risk factors associated with mortality in patients with meningitis. This is a retrospective review of patients diagnosed to have meningitis with positive culture of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) specimen. All cases aged 19 > years who were admitted to Hospital USM between January 2004 and December 2011 were included in the study. The CSF results database were obtained from the Department of Medical Microbiology and Parasitology, Hospital USM, Kelantan. A checklist was used to record the clinical characteristics. A total of 125 cases met the inclusion criteria. The age of patients ranged between newborn and 19 years old (Mean±SD, 74.5±80.6 months). The majority of them were males (65.6%). Fever was the most common presentation (73.6%) followed by poor oral intake (48.0%), seizure (36.0%) and headache (24.8%). The mortality rate was 31.2%. Coagulase negative staphylococcus was the most frequent pathogens isolated (21.6%), followed by Acinetobacter spp. (17.6%), Staphylococcus aureus (13.6%), Streptococcus spp. (11.2%) and Klebsiella pneumoniae (6.4%). There were significant association of in-hospital death with age (p=0.020) and conscious level (p=0.001). Infectious meningitis is a big health concern, especially among children. We found that coagulase negative staphylococcus, Acinetobacter species, S. aureus, Streptococcus spp and K. pneumoniae were prevalent in our hospital. These microorganisms were hospital associated pathogens. The 31% mortality linked to hospital acquired meningitis specifies the need for focused physician attention especially among younger aged patients