Effects Of Leisure Education Programme On Leisure Benefits And Motivation Among Rural Iban Adolescents In Sibu, Sarawak

Introduction: Leisure education is becoming an important concept in the Western world, but less established and practiced in Malaysia. Evidence has shown the positive effects of leisure education programme to reduce adolescent’s engagement in risky behaviours, such as substance use, sexual behaviour, obesity, and internet addiction, which are detrimental to adolescent’s health and well-being. This study was aimed to examine the effects of leisure education programme on leisure benefits and motivation aspects among rural Iban adolescents in Sibu, Sarawak. Methods: The study employed a pre-post evaluation design. Convenience sampling was used to select the participants.Thirty four Iban adolescents from two longhouses had completed 9-hour leisure education programme for three weeks. Respondents were surveyed before and immediately after the intervention to observe changes in knowledge of leisure benefits and free time motivation scales. Data were analyzed with the use of Wilcoxon signed ranks tests. Significance level was set at p<0.05. Results: The leisure education intervention showed improvement in respondent’s knowledge on benefits of leisure time, but no significant changes was detected in all five motivation types (intrinsic, amotivation, extrinsic, introjected and identified). Conclusion: The leisure education intervention conducted had effectively improved the knowledge of the respondents on leisure benefits. Therefore, leisure education service can be considered to promote a balanced and healthy leisure lifestyle among adolescents. Keywords: Adolescent, Knowledge, Leisure Education, Motivation, Rura

Feeling Unsafe a photovoice analysis of factors influencing physical activity behavior among Malaysian adolescents

Understanding the factors influencing physical activity (PA) in the Asia-Pacific region is critical, given the high prevalence of inactivity in this area. The photovoice technique explores the types of PA and factors influencing PA among adolescents in Kuching, Sarawak. A total of 160 photographs were collected from participants (adolescents, n = 22, mean age = 14.27 ± 0.7 years, and parents, n = 8, mean age = 48 ± 6.8 years). Data analysis used constant comparison methods of a grounded theory. The Analysis Grid for Environments Linked to Obesity was used to categorize PA factors. Study findings were centered on the concept of safety, facilities, parental restriction, friends, cultural traits, media, community cohesiveness, and weather. The central theme was �feeling unsafe� when being outdoors. To promote PA behavior, provision of PA facilities needs to be supported by other programs that build on peer support, crime prevention, and traffic safety, together with other educational campaigns

The decision to vaccinate or not during the H1N1 pandemic: selecting the lesser of two evils?

BACKGROUND: With the release of the H1N1 vaccine, there was much controversy surrounding its use despite strong encouragements to be vaccinated in the media. Though studies have examined factors influencing people's decision to be vaccinated, few have focused on how general beliefs about the world or where an individual gathers information might influence that decision. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: A cross-sectional web-based survey (N = 817) was conducted during the H1N1 outbreak after the vaccine was available. Variables examined included sociodemographic information, health related behaviours, specific beliefs concerning the H1N1 virus and its vaccine, as well as general beliefs, such as fear of contamination, intolerance of uncertainty, emotional states, coping behaviour, and the source of information concerning the virus. Three converging statistical methods were used to examine the associations - analysis of variance, logistic regression, and recursive partition modelling. The most consistent and strongest association was that negative beliefs about the H1N1 vaccine (e.g. fear of its side effects) was related to the decision not to be vaccinated, whereas beliefs about the dangers of the H1N1 virus was related to the decision to be vaccinated. Most notably, having very strong negative beliefs about the vaccine was a more powerful predictor than even strong beliefs about the dangers of the H1N1 virus. Furthermore, obtaining information from the Internet, as compared to more traditional sources of information (e.g., TV, newspapers) was related to the decision not to be vaccinated. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: These results are consistent with the Health Belief Model. Importantly they suggest that during future pandemics public health officials should not only discuss the dangers of the pandemic but also (i) take additional steps to reassure the public about the safety of vaccines and (ii) monitor the information disseminated over the Internet rather than strictly relying on the more traditional mass media

Simultaneous measurement of high refractive index and temperature based on SSRS-FBG

In this study, a novel and simple optical fiber sensor is proposed, simulated, and experimentally demonstrated for simultaneous measurement of high refractive index (RI) and temperature. The sensor consists of a section of single-mode-silica rod-single-mode (SSRS) fiber structure cascaded to fiber Bragg grating (FBG) (SSRS-FBG). The simultaneous measurement of high RI and temperature was realized in this study by monitoring the output power level and wavelength shift of the SSRS-FBG single dip transmission spectrum corresponding to different surrounding high RI and ambient temperature values. The experimental results showed that the cascaded sensor had a sensitivity of 108.07 dBm/RIU for high RI ranging at 1.45-1.531, while the temperature sensitivity was 9.31 pm/°C from 35 °C to 85 °C. This sensor is most suitable for high RI applications, such as for monitoring oil quality stored in terminal and power transformers

Most influential information source for the decision to be vaccinated.

<p><i>Note:</i> Cells represent the percentage of participants in each group who endorsed the item as being most influential in their decision.</p

Odds ratio for vaccination intention (Yes or No/Undecided) (<i>N</i> = 816).

<p><i>Note</i>: Odds ratios (OR) that have a 95% confidence interval that includes the value 1.0 are not significant at the .05 level.</p>a<p>Reference category for ethnicity is Caucasian.</p>b<p>Reference category for High Risk Group is no.</p>c<p>Reference category for Health Professional is no.</p>d<p>Reference category for Preferred Information Source is Discussions with Friends and Family.</p>*<p><i>p</i><.10, * <i>p</i><.05; <i>** p</i><.01.</p

Classification and regression tree (CART) model depicting variables discriminating those who were (Yes) and were not vaccinated or were undecided (No).

<p><i>Note</i>: The square box with double lines represents the starting node, all other square boxes represent terminal nodes. Circular boxes represent nodes containing branches. The title contained within circular boxes indicates the measure used to divide participants into the next node with the dividing values indicated along the arrows. <i>Neg Vac Beliefs</i>  =  Negative Vaccination Beliefs.</p