Stress in parents of children with autism: A Malaysian experience

This study examines differences in parental stress between parents of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) children (n=21) and Typically Developed (TD) children (n=41) in Malaysia. This study also compares the ages of parents of ASD children with parents of TD children with stress as a variable in these parents. Parents completed the Parental Stress Index (brief Malay version) and a socio-demographic questionnaire. Parents with ASD children were found to be significantly more stressed compared to parents of TD children (p<0.001). Significant scores were also found in the Parent-Child Dysfunctional Interaction (P-CDI) sub-scale (p<0.001) as well as Difficult Child (DC) and Parental Distress (PD) sub-scales with lower significance (p<0.05). Results also indicate that the 30-35-year-old age group among ASD parents was significantly found to be more stressed compared with parents of TD children of the same ages. Implications of the findings regarding support and intervention for families with ASD are also discussed

The relationship between Islamic religiosity, depression and anxiety among Muslim cancer patients.

There is a growing body of evidence that religiosity and spirituality can buffer depression and anxiety and support the healing process in cancer patients. However, literature on the role of Islamic religiosity in the healing of Muslim cancer patients are few. This study aimed to examine the relationship between Islamic religiosity with depression and anxiety in Muslim cancer patients. 59 cancer patients were approached in oncology day care and ward at a Malaysian government hospital and in a cancer support group activity. Patients completed the Muslim Religiosity and Personality Inventory which assessed their Islamic religiosity scores through the constructs of Islamic beliefs and Manifestation of Islamic belief. Self-rated depression and anxiety were assessed using validated Beck Depression Inventory and Beck Anxiety Inventory in Malay. Ten of the patients were interviewed about their spiritual experiences and emotions. Questionnaire findings revealed a significant negative correlation between Islamic religiosity with depression and anxiety. Higher manifestation of Islamic belief was associated with lower depression while higher Islamic belief was associated with higher education. Higher Islamic religiosity was associated with older age, married and pensioned patients. Interview findings revealed that being ill brought the patients closer to God and many thanked God for the blessing and time spared for them to repent and do more good actions. All of them used prayers to heal their pain. Patients also reported strong feelings of anger, frustration and sadness after the initial diagnosis which slowly disappeared as they began to accept their illness as a blessing in disguise. It is concluded that there is a need to respond to the meaning and values given to human existence besides responding to physical and mental suffering in cancer patients

Islamic religiosity, depression and anxiety among Muslim cancer patients

Active religious practice is central to Muslim livelihood. Among Muslims, this religious engagement is rarely studied with regards to its association in coping with critical illnesses. This study investigated the association between Islamic religiosity with depression and anxiety in Muslim cancer patients. Fifty-nine cancer patients recruited from a Malaysian public hospital and a cancer support group completed the Muslim Religiosity and Personality Inventory, Beck Depression Inventory and Beck Anxiety Inventory in July and August 2010. Islamic religiosity score, obtained from the sum of subscale scores of Islamic worldview and religious personality represents a greater understanding and practice of Islam in a comprehensive manner. Results yielded a significant negative correlation between Islamic religiosity score with both depression and anxiety. Depression was also found to be negatively associated with religious personality subscale. Older patients scored significantly higher on both Islamic worldview and religious personality whereas patients with higher education scored higher on Islamic worldview. Married patients scored significantly higher scores on religious personality than the single patients. Results provided an insight into the significant role of religious intervention which has huge potentials to improve the psychological health of cancer patients particularly Muslims in Malaysia. Research implication includes the call for professionals to meet the spiritual needs of Muslim cancer patients and incorporating religious components in their treatment, especially in palliative care

Japanese university students’ perceived overweight and actual weight : relationship with a wish to die

Previous studies demonstrated that perceived overweight has a larger role than actual body weight does in suicidal ideation and attempts. Despite high suicidal rate found among university students, studies have been limited in examining the role of perceived overweight in relation to suicidality in this population. This study aims to examine the relationship between a wish to die with perceived overweight and actual weight, measured by Body Mass Index (BMI) in university students. The sample comprised of 2,000 incoming freshmen in a Japanese university. Multivariate logistic regression was used to determine the association between a wish to die and perceived overweight and actual weight. Results indicated a wish to die prevalence of 5.8% (n=115) and perceived overweight prevalence of 15.8% (n=315) among the freshmen. Perceived overweight significantly increased the odds of a wish to die by two-fold (Odds Ratio (OR) =2.01, 95% Confidence Interval (CI) = 1.20- 3.37), in contrast to actual weight which was not significantly associated with a wish to die. Findings implied the necessity to promote healthy attitudes towards body weight and self-acceptance regardless of weight status among university students that could reduce the potential risk of a wish to die from progressing along the continuum of suicidality in later life

Microphone-independent speech features for automatic depression detection using recurrent neural network

Depression is a common mental disorder that has a negative impact on individuals, society, and the economy. Traditional clinical diagnosis methods are subjective and necessitate extensive expert participation. Because it is fast, convenient, and non-invasive, automatic depression detection using speech signals is a promising depression objective biomarker. Acoustic feature extraction is one of the most challenging techniques for speech analysis applications in mobile phones. The values of the extracted acoustic features are significantly influenced by adverse environmental noises, a wide range of microphone specifications, and various types of recording software. This study identified microphone-independent acoustic features and utilized them in developing an end-to-end recurrent neural network model to classify depression from Bahasa Malaysia speech. The dataset includes 110 female participants. Patient Health Questionnaire 9, Malay Beck Depression Inventory-II, and subjects’ declaration of Major Depressive Disorder diagnosis by a trained clinician were used to determine depression status. Multiple combinations of speech types were compared and discussed. Robust acoustic features derived from female spontaneous speech achieved an accuracy of 85%

Improving emotional well-being through nature

Abstract— Nature may be used as a treatment method for patients with mental disorders which has yet to be implemented despite numerous evidence showing that being in touch with nature links to increased happiness, positive affect, positive social interactions, and a sense of meaning and purpose in life, as well as reduced mental distress. This project focuses on demonstrating the benefits of nature towards improving emotional well-being of people based on the detection of Electrodermal Activity (EDA). EDA signals will be collected from the controlled and experimental participants for the identification of nature’s positive impact towards participants’ mental well-being. Raw signals will require pre-processing and feature extraction which will use an open-source Python toolkit called PyEDA. The project will also incorporate machine learning for EDA signal classification which also utilizes python open-source software. The results will be observed and studied based on its accuracy in classifying the EDA signals between the controlled and experimental conditions. This project will be heading towards improving mental health treatment by proving that incorporating the world’s most abundant resources, nature together with the incorporation of biosensors for mental health detection will help close the gap between mental health patients and clinicians

Psychosocial factors affecting mental well-being of dental students: a qualitative study

INTRODUCTION: Dental students often faced high levels of mental distress which contributed to lower mental well-being. This has a negative impact on their health and academic performance. Many previous studies focused on students who were already in a 'diseased' state with little focus on students who are well but at risk of developing poor mental well-being. A better understanding of the factors affecting the mental well-being dental students is needed. This study was aimed to explore the factors associated with mental well-being of dental students and to identify steps to promote their mental wellbeing. MATERIALS & METHODS: In this qualitative study, individual interviews were conducted among undergraduate dental students using semi-structured interview guide. The interviews were recorded, transcribed via verbatim and analyzed using thematic analysis. RESULTS: The analysis revealed three main themes; i) Impression of dentistry, ii) Stressors and iii) Mental health experience. This study elucidated the experiences and stressors of dental students as they advanced through their dental education especially in clinical years. Most of the students had experienced low levels of mental well-being which affected them negatively. The findings also showed opportunities for fostering better mental well-being. CONCLUSION: Undergraduate dental students often experienced low mental well-being due to the stressors they faced. Identifying the factors that influenced the mental well-being of dental students would allow for early intervention and fostering of mental well-being among dental students

Psychosocial factors affecting mental well-being of dental students: a qualitative study

INTRODUCTION: Dental students often faced high levels of mental distress which contributed to lower mental well-being. This has a negative impact on their health and academic performance. Many previous studies focused on students who were already in a 'diseased' state with little focus on students who are well but at risk of developing poor mental well-being. A better understanding of the factors affecting the mental well-being dental students is needed. This study was aimed to explore the factors associated with mental well-being of dental students and to identify steps to promote their mental well-being. MATERIALS & METHODS: In this qualitative study, individual interviews were conducted among undergraduate dental students using semi-structured interview guide. The interviews were recorded, transcribed via verbatim and analyzed using thematic analysis. RESULTS: The analysis revealed three main themes; i) Impression of dentistry, ii) Stressors and iii) Mental health experience. This study elucidated the experiences and stressors of dental students as they advanced through their dental education especially in clinical years. Most of the students had experienced low levels of mental well-being which affected them negatively. The findings also showed opportunities for fostering better mental well-being. CONCLUSION: Undergraduate dental students often experienced low mental well-being due to the stressors they faced. Identifying the factors that influenced the mental well-being of dental students would allow for early intervention and fostering of mental well-being among dental students

A systematic literature review of an advisory system

The growth of Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven technologies has been proposed as a means to improve the standard of people’s lives. The advent of the advisory system has manifested itself as a significant element in Artificial Intelligence, effectively helping people in various fields. This research presents a systematic literature review of an advisory system. This research initially presents 472 articles by examining the literature between 2015 and 2023. After a meticulous review process, the studies were filtered down to 67 articles for full analysis. This review provides significant contributions to the exploration of advisory systems, specifically in the existing framework of advisory systems, the techniques applied in advisory systems, the domain in which the Artificial Intelligence technique is being applied in the advisory system, and the validation technique used in validating the advisory system. Ultimately, this review contributes to a deeper understanding of an advisory system’s role in Artificial Intelligence and in various domains for optimising an advisory system application

The effect of mindfulness as the psychological intervention on perceived stress among breastfeeding mothers with Intrauterine Growth Restriction (IUGR) babies

Introduction: High cortisol level during pregnancy due to psychological stress could cause Intrauterine Growth Restriction (IUGR) towards baby which could affect the baby’s neurodevelopment and mental health. However, the epigenetic of the IUGR baby can be altered through breastfeeding and bonding between the mother and baby. Mindfulness intervention should be given to reduce the mother’s stress as mothers need to be supported for their children to be optimally breastfed. Hence, the objective of this study was to determine the effectiveness of mindfulness as a psychological intervention to reduce the level of perceived stress among breastfeeding mothers. Materials and Methods: This quasi-experimental study investigated the effect of mindfulness on perceived stress with measurement in baseline, pre-test, and post-test on 23 pregnant women with diagnosis of late-onset IUGR babies at Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, SASMEC @IIUM. Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) was measured during antenatal period as the baseline and after confinement as the pre-test. Later, a counselling session with mindfulness therapy as the psychological intervention was conducted, followed by another two follow up sessions with intervals of two to three weeks. PSS was measured again after the third counselling session as the post-test. Data collected was then analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 27. Results: Based on the analysis of variance (ANOVA), there is no significant reduction in perceived stress following the psychological intervention with the mean score for pre-test (M=17.3, SD=4.9) and post-test (M=15.1, SD=5.8), (p<0.05) but still there is slight reduction as compared to the baseline (M=15.9, SD=4.6). Conclusion: Mindfulness can be considered as a coping technique to reduce the perceived stress among the breastfeeding mothers and consequently may improve the condition of the IUGR babies