The Malaysia Diagnosis Related Group (MY-DRG®), established since 2002, is a patient classification system that stratifies disease severity and categories patients into iso-resource groups. Casemix can be used to estimate costs per episode of care and as a provider payment tool in health services. Casemix has also been used to enhance quality and improve the efficiency of health services. Hence, estimation cost per DRG is important especially in developing countries where costing data are still scarce. We embarked on a study to determine the costs of the diagnostics laboratory services for each MY-DRG® based on the severity of illnesses. Most costing studies for diagnostic laboratory services usually focus on the cost of consumables and equipment alone and employed the step-down costing method. Very few studies applied Activity-Based Costing (ABC) method to estimate the costs for diagnostic laboratory services. This study was done with the purpose of developing the diagnostics laboratory cost using the ABC method. All medical cases discharged from UKM Medical Centre (UKMMC) in 2011 grouped into MY-DRG® were included in this study. In 2011, a total of 2.7 million diagnostic laboratory investigations were carried out in the Department of Diagnostic Laboratory Services in UKMMC. ABC was conducted from January to December 2013 in all units of the department. Cost of 242 types of diagnostic laboratory services were collected using a costing format. Out of 25,754 cases, 16,173 (62.8%) cases were from the medical discipline. After trimming using L3H3 method, 15,387 cases were included in the study. Most of the cases were on severity level one (44.6%), followed by severity level two (32.3%) and severity level three (23.1%). The highest diagnostic laboratory service weight was for Lymphoma & Chronic Leukemia, severity level III (C-4-11-III) with the value of 5.9609. Information on seven cost components was collected form each procedure: human resources, consumables, equipment, reagents, administration, maintenance and utilities. The results revealed that, the biggest cost component for human resources was in Molecular Genetic Unit (89.6%), consumables (34.8%) from Tissue Culture Unit, equipment (11.2%) and reagents (68.1%) from Specialized Haemostasis Unit. In conclusion, the accurate and reliable cost of the diagnostic laboratory services can be determined using ABC. Top management of the department should be able to use the output of the study to take appropriate steps to reduce unnecessary wastages of resources in the various units of the services.
The increased use of health care services by elderly has placed greater pressure to an already strained health care resources. Thus, an accurate economic cost estimation for specific age-related diseases like dementia is essential. The objectives of this project are to estimate costs of treating patient dementia among Malaysian elderly in the hospital settings. Two types of data were collected: Hospital costing data (using costing template) and patient clinical data (using questionaire). The cost analysis for hospital setting was carried out using a step-down costing methodology. The costing template was used to organize costing data into three levels of cost centers in hospitals: overhead cost centers (e.g. administration, consumables, maintenance), intermediate cost centers (e.g. pharmacy, radiology), and final cost centers (all wards and clinics). In estimating the cost for each cost center, both capital cost (building, equipment and furniture cost) and recurrent cost (staff salary and recurrent cost except salary) were combined. Information on activities which reflects the workload such as discharges, inpatient days, number of visit, floor space etc., are gathered to determine an appropriate allocation factor. In addition, for each final cost center, the fully allocated costs are then divided by the total unit of in-patient days to obtain the cost of providing services on a per-patient per-day of stay basis, referred as unit cost. The unit cost is finally multiplied with the individual patient’s length of stay to obtain the cost of care per patient per admission. All these steps were simplified by using the Clinical Cost Modeling Software Version 3.0 (CCM Ver. 3.0). The mean cost of dementia cases per episode of care was RM 12,806 (SD=10,389) with the length of stay of 14.3 (SD=9.9) days per admission. The top three components of cost for the treatment of dementia were the ward services 8,040 (SD=7,512), 62.78% of the total cost, followed by the pharmacy 1,312(SD=1,098), 10.25% of the total cost and Intensive Care Unit 979 (SD=961), 7.64% of the total cost. A multivariable analysis using multiple linear regressions showed that factors which significantly influence (p<0.05) the treatment costs of dementia cases were the length of stay (p<0.001), followed by age (p=0.001), case type severe (p=0.005) and study location (p=0.032). However, the factor length of stay is the tremendous parameter. In conclusion, data collection from selected hospitals as well as patient level data from medical record unit were successfully used to estimate the provider costs of hospital for the elderly with dementia disease. Results from the project will enable an assessment on the economic impact and consequences of cognitive impairment in an aged population. A cost quantification and distributive mapping of the burden of care can assist in policy implementation through targeted intervention for at-risk groups, which will translate into savings by means of delayed onset or progression of dementia.
Cultural attitudes of the societies have long been identified as one of the important determinants of Quality of Life (QoL). Yet there is a dearth of socio-culturally validated instruments for local population to assess the impact of socio-cultural practice on health. The aim of this validation study is to develop and test the validity and reliabilityof a questionnaire on culture dimensions.Respondents were asked about their engagement in socio-cultural aspects including beliefs and practice oftraditional customs and culture using a set of newly developed questionnaire.A total of 275eligible respondentsparticipatedwith150(54.5%)from the general population and 125 (45.5%)from the Orang Asli population. Kaiser-Meyer Olkin measure of Sampling Adequacy (KMO) was 0.791 and 0.677 for the general and Orang Asli population respectively. Bartlett’s test for both population was significant (p<0.001). By Principal Common Analysis, four factorswere extracted (Eigen values >1.0) that jointly accounted for 54.7% and 52.0% of the total variance among the general population and Orang Asli respectively.The Cronbach alpha value score was 0.785and 0.730 for the general population and Orang Asli population respectively. The Cronbach alpha values foreach of the four domains ranged from 0.477-0.865 and 0.543-0.758 for the general population and Orang Asli population respectively.These results suggest that the newly developed questionnaire appeared to have adequate validity and reliability in measuringsocio-cultural factors in the population.
A validated screening tool for patient triage based on the pain symptoms, could potentially optimize the resources and expertise available in dental pain management. The aim of this study was to translate and validate the Modified Dental Pain Questionnaire (M-DePaQ) for use in categorizing patients with pain into three groups of common dental conditions. Forward Malay and Chinese translation was performed, followed by backward English translation. The translation was reviewed by an expert panel and pre-tested on patients who are native speakers.Consecutive patients aged 18 years and older experiencing pain and attending the primary dental care clinic completed the questionnaires. Four calibrated dentists made clinical diagnoses independent of the questionnaire responses. For data analysis, the cases were split randomly into Random Sample 1 (RS1) and Random Sample 2 (RS2). Discriminant analysis was performed on RS1 to develop a model for classifying dental pain cases into three groups. The model was applied to cases in RS2, and a cross-validated accuracy rate was obtained. Criterion validity was assessed using measures such as sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and kappa. Of the 234 questionnaires distributed, 216 (92.3%) were returned. Classification rates were recorded at 73.8% for RS1, 75.0% for RS2, and 71.1% for all cases. The sensitivity values were 0.72, 0.39, and 0.43 for Groups 1, 2, and 3, respectively. The corresponding specificity values were 0.42, 0.87, and 0.94. The discriminant validity of the adapted questionnaire was satisfactory, but the criterion validity could not be established because of biases incorporated in the study.
The purpose of the study was to determine the level of knowledge and beliefs about female breast cancer among male students. A cross-sectional study involving 460 male students of a private university selected by convenient sampling was conducted using self-administered questionnaires that consists of socio-demographic details as well as knowledge and beliefs about female breast cancer. The prevalence of good knowledge was only 45.2%, there was a significant association between level of knowledge and age, course of study (p=0.02 and < 0.001, respectively). The prevalence of poor belief was 72.6% and the main source of information was the media (84.1 %). There was no significant association between beliefs about female breast cancer and family income, mother’s education and race. However, there was a significant association between beliefs about female breast cancer and age, course of study and father’s education. As a conclusion, the knowledge and beliefs about female breast cancer among the male students was very poor. More education and awareness need to be emphasized; especially the media was the most common source of information in our study.
The type of specific learning needs of women with breast cancer using the Information Needs Questionnaire (INQ) had been identified prior to developing a breast cancer education package. It is also important to determine the types of patient factors such as demographic and clinical factors that influence women’s specific learning needs on breast cancer. This study thus reports the findings on what type of patient factors influence women’s specific learning needs related to the types of INQ. A total of 140 women with breast cancer who sought treatment at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre participated in this cross sectional study. Age showed a significant relationship with specific learning needs on sexual attractiveness (p=0.001) and self-care (p=0.048). Duration of illness was related to information on spread of breast cancer (p=0.040) and self-care (p=0.047). Education level showed a significant relationship with cure (p=0.001), sexual attractiveness (p=0.007) and spread of breast cancer (p=0.003). Occupation showed a significant relationship with specific learning needs on sexual attractiveness (p=0.005), chemotherapy (p=0.043), radiotherapy (p=0.039) and hormonal therapy (p=0.043). On treatment received, a significant relationship was noted with sexual attractiveness (p=0.009), radiotherapy (p=0.029), hormonal therapy (p=0.038) and targeted therapy (p=0.047). Ethnicity and Marital status showed no significant relationship with all the specific learning needs. Findings of this study concluded that certain patient factors had significant relationship with certain specific learning needs. All the patient factors studied and their influence on the specific learning needs were taken into consideration prior to developing the breast cancer education package.
MeSH terms: Breast Neoplasms*; Humans; Malaysia; Self Care
Occupational cancers, including mesothelioma and lung cancer are linked to the use of asbestos. Annually, at least 100,000 global deaths are attributed to asbestos exposure putting a heavy burden on national budgets. Expenses incurred on treatment of asbestos related diseases (ARDs) reduce households and national resource savings, while ARDs culminate in terminal burdens. The objective of this study is to measure the economic burden of ARDs and to assess the economic impact of asbestos consumption. The health and economic burden of asbestos was estimated in macro-global consumption-production model using production function frontier-based and generalized least squared approach for asbestos products and cost tabulation. Production, in metric tons (Mt) was adopted as a dependent variable among explanatory variables, including consumption. Information on treatment cost of asbestos related diseases (mesothelioma, asbestosis and lung cancer) was obtained from costing information and published literatures. Annual total economic burden of asbestos is at USD 11.92 billion. Out of this cost, USD 4.34 billion per annum is the economic burden of managing three common ARDs. The cost of compensation for patients suffering ARDs is USD 4.28 billion. From the remaining USD 3.3 billion, USD 2.93 billion is the value of asbestos consumed in 2003 and USD372.15 million is the loss of earning due to hospital visits and admissions. For every USD 1 spent on consumption of asbestos, global economy has to absorb almost USD 4 due to health consequences of ARDs. Banning of asbestos production and usage in production of goods has far-reaching impacts on household welfare, health and economic development. The insights revealed are expected to inform decision makers the need to ban all forms of asbestos, especially in developing countries where usage is increasing.
MeSH terms: Asbestos; Asbestosis; Developing Countries; Humans; Lung Neoplasms; Mesothelioma; Health Care Costs; Economic Development
Worldwide prevalence of obesity among children and adolescents increased substantially over decades. Addressing potential risk factors of obesity among adolescents is very important for a successful intervention program in this population. The present study aimed to identify the sociodemographic determinants of obesity among school adolescents in Terengganu. A cross-sectional survey involving 3,798 school adolescents age 12 years old from 136 government primary schools in Kuala Terengganu and Besut districts were carried out from November 2014 to June 2015. For the purpose of this paper, the data for 2,842 school adolescents classified as either normal BMI (< +1SD) (n= 2,305) or obese (+2SD) (n= 537) based on WHO cut-off points were taken for analysis. Sociodemographic information on subjects and their parents were obtained from self-reported questionnaire. Anthropometric measurements were conducted by Physical Education teachers and uploaded into a specific developed database. The prevalence of obesity was relatively high in both genders in this study. Binary logistic regression analysis found gender, parental BMI, household income, household size and maternal working status were independently associated with obesity among school adolescents in this population. In the final model, being male, having working mother, and having obese parents were identified to be potential risk factors for obesity whilst having large household size lower the risk of obesity among these adolescents. Prevention programs are needed to increase awareness about the risk factors of obesity in adolescent and interventions should now focus on family member as well mainly the parents.
MeSH terms: Adolescent; Child; Cross-Sectional Studies; Female; Government; Humans; Male; Mothers; Obesity; Parents; Physical Education and Training; Risk Factors; Schools; World Health Organization; Body Mass Index; Prevalence; Logistic Models; Self Report
Relaxation technique is a method, process, procedure or activity that helps a person to relax. There are several methods of relaxation techniques that can be used proven beneficial to improve the individual state of relaxation. Relaxation can be performed individually or in a group. With suitable technique of relaxation, it will improve quality of life as well as emotional and physical. This study aims to investigate the impact of three different relaxation techniques, namely Autogenic (AGR), Progressive Muscle (PMR) and Music Relaxation (MR) on mood states among Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (UniSZA) athletes. Eighty UniSZA athletes aged between 18 to 25 years old were randomly assigned into four groups which were AGR, PMR, MR and control group. Each groups consisted of 20 subjects which were male and female athletes with multidiscipline of the sports involvement. The mood states were determined by Brunel Mood Scale (BRUMS) during pre and post-intervention. The subjects in the three intervention groups received relaxation training twice a week for four weeks, 30 minutes per sessions. While, a control group not received any relaxation training during the intervention time. Repeated measure ANOVA conducted showed that the two parameters in BRUMS significantly changes in post-intervention such vigour (F=16.083, p<0.0001) and confusion (F=3.412, p=0.022). Other negative mood scores showed no significant changes such; (anger; F=2.235, p=0.091, depression; F=0.960, p=0.416, fatigue; F=0.724, p=0.540, tension; F=16.083, p=0.913).The results of Pairwise Comparison revealed that the three types of relaxation techniques (AGR, PMR and MR) effective to enhance vigour (positive mood) score among the adult subjects. In this study, PMR was the most effective relaxation technique followed by AGR and MR to regulate the mood state among adults.
Agriculture sector accounts significant numbers of injuries and fatalities in the workplace particularly related to pesticide management. Among three main pathways of pesticide exposure, dermal contact is the most common route, which exposure usually occurs during pesticide mixing/loading, application, harvesting and other farming activities. This review aims to present and discuss several vital components of pesticide dermal exposure among agriculture workers, as well as pesticide application in agriculture sector in Malaysia involving different commodity agriculture sub-sectors. Pesticide exposure was discussed from perspective of three pesticide management activities (i.e. preparation, application and cleaning) that contribute to the risk of exposure through three routes (i.e. emission, deposition, transfer). Moreover, this paper also discussed pesticide dermal exposure risk assessment methods which can be defined into exposure assessment and effect assessment. The exposure rate was affected by various factors such as application equipment, application rate and duration, type of pesticide formulation, pesticide management stage, usage of personal protective equipment, training and aptitude of the applicator as well as environmental factors (i.e. temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction). The factors mention earlier have been used to explain the exposure distribution over different parts of the body and support the fact that pesticide type was not a major factor in total exposure.
We compared the determinant factors of depression; among faculties in university, among junior and senior students, and gender differences among representative samples of faculties in university. Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression (CES-D) consisting for 20 questions was used to assess the status of well-being of students. A total of 240 students participated and completed the assessment forms. The results were then compared and analyzed using the IBM SPSS Statistics version 21. There was no effect of faculty on depression (p=0.854). The association between year of study and depression was not statistically significant (p≥0.05). Likewise, the association between gender and depression was statistically not significant (p≥0.05). The study revealed absence of statistically significant effect of faculty on depression. It was also found that gender and depression as well as year of study and depression were not statistically significant.
Community pharmacists are expected to have the necessary knowledge to give advice on safe and appropriate drug use during self-medication. However, the profession of pharmacist in Yemen has become less trustworthy and less reliable. In addition, quality of medication has been raising a lot of questions among consumers and fake medications have been entering the country without quality control checks. The aim of this study was to determine the consumer perception of health care services provided and its impact on self-medication practice in Sana’a city, Yemen. A self-administered questionnaire containing open-ended and closed-ended questions was developed and distributed among 400 consumers attending 10 community pharmacies in Sana’a City. All data obtained from the questionnaires were coded, entered, and analysed using Chi-square test and multiple logistic regressions. Prevalence of self-medication was found to be 90.7 %. The majority of respondents stated that they do not trust the health care services provided by physician (68.8%), community drug dispensers (78.2%), Ministry of Health (70.5%) or the quality of medicine dispensed by community pharmacies (59.7%). The trust of health care services provided by physicians and community drug dispensers were found to be significant predictors of self-medication practice. Those who did not trust health care services provided by physicians were more likely to use self-medication compared to those who did not (OR= 21.212, CI 95% 2.678-168.001, p= 0.004). Those who did not trust health care services provided by community drug dispensers were more likely to use self-medication compared to those who did not (OR= 2.746, CI 95% 1.048-7.195, p= 0.04). Consumers in Sana’a City have a negative overall perception of the services provided by community drug dispensers, physician and Ministry of Health and the quality of medication. An urgent intervention from health care authorities to adopt and to implement a new national drug policy with necessary laws and regulations is needed.
A cross-sectional study was conducted on 116 male pre-cast construction workers in Sipitang, Sabah to evaluate the association between Ergonomic Risk Level exposure and their working performances for 6 months (June to November 2014). Initially, a structured interview using a modified-Standardized Nordic Questionnaire was conducted on each study subject to determine the prevalence of Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs). The results showed that 93 out of 116 subjects (80.17%) complained of experiencing ache, pain or body discomfort during and after work with high percentage of MSDs prevalence affecting the wrist (78.5%), shoulder (73.1%), and lower leg (71.0%) regions of the body. Pictures and videos of workers performing their routine tasks were analyzed using Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) tool to generate individual Ergonomic Risk Level classification. The results showed that all subjects were exposed to Medium (56.90%), High (29.31%) and Very High (13.79%) level of Ergonomic Risk. Pearson Correlation and One-way ANOVA test was conducted to determine the association between Ergonomic Risk Level and the subjects’ individual working performances. The results indicated that there was a significant negative association between Ergonomic Risk Level and the workers' performances in terms of tendency to work overtime (p
Work-related upper-extremity disorders (WRUEDs) are frequently occurring among workers in general. Various researches support the empirical results of the Autogenic factors related to such problems of health and safety. Research shows the association of different aspects of work organization strengthen the possibilities of work-related stress and other psychosocial factors, which may lead towards adverse health conditions. To review the previous work done for finding the association between psychosocial factors and upper extremity disorders. Findings from different studies have been reviewed to examine the psychosocial factors association in developing WRUEDs. Published studies, which were primarily focused on WRUEDs and psychosocial factors association, were reviewed. Various studies have shown the relationship between psychosocial factors and UEDs. Due to the different nature of epidemiology of the disorder and variable differences, findings from different studies contradicts. Finally, this review presents the limitations in existing studies, and further research has been proposed for future.
Fecal occult blood test (FOBT) screening has been shown to decrease the incidence and mortality of colorectal cancer (CRC). The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) of the immunochemical fecal occult blood test (i-FOBT) in diagnosing CRC were assessed among the patients in a tertiary referral hospital in Malaysia. A total sample of 814 patients aged 16 to 85 years old who performed i-FOBT and endoscopic screenings was obtained. The patients were recruited for a retrospective investigation. Sensitivity, specificity, PPV, and NPV were derived for the CRC screenees. Out of the 814 patients screened using i-FOBT, half of them were above 59 years old (49.6%), and 36% had positive i-FOBT. Gender distribution was almost equal, where 53.4% of the patients were female, and 46.6% were male. Majority of the patients were Malays (56.6%), followed by Chinese (24.0%), Indians (16.5%), and others (2.9%). Among the 71 patients referred for colonoscopy, 57.7% and 42.3% corresponded to positive and negative i-FOBT cases, respectively. Polyps were found to be most common among the patients (25.6%), 7.0% were found positive for invasive CRC, and 35.2% had normal colonoscopic findings. There was a significant association between colonoscopic finding and positive i-FOBT (p=0.001). The sensitivity, specificity, PPV, and NPV for CRC detection were 66.7%, 43.0%, 9.8%, and 93.3%, respectively. The results indicate that i-FOBT is a useful tool in the detection of abnormalities in the lower gastrointestinal tract and therefore serves as a cornerstone for potential large-scale screening programmes.
A spring is a result of karsts topography where surface water has infiltrated the earth's surface recharge area, becoming part of groundwater and emerges from below to become natural spring water. From few observations, local people tend to consume this water directly for many health reasons. The objective of the study was to determine the concentration of lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) in natural water resources and bottled drinking water sources, and compared with the existing standard. This field assessment was carried out in 2014 as part of the educational module for public health master student. About 13 water samples were collected directly from the tubing into the pre-washed sample bottle and rinse with the sampling water in the field. Sample preservation was achieved by acidifying to pH less 4.0 with nitric acid (HNO3). Samples were stored in a cooler with temperature between 0 to 4oC. Heavy metals were analysed by standard method for graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrophotometer (GFAAS) with Zeeman’s correction. Pb and Cd content were analysed from 13 samples which consists of eight natural spring water and five flavoured bottled drinking water. The result showed that Pb content in spring water ranges between 1.8 and 37.3ppb, while the Cd content in spring water ranges between 3.0 and 23.0ppb. In the commercialised drinking water, the amount of Pb ranges between 0.4 and 2.6 ppb, while the content of Cd ranges between 0.8 and 7.0 ppb. This study indicates that there are high content of Pb and Cd in most of the natural spring water points and some bottled drinking water that are available within Klang Valley. In the absence of any specific point sources, the possibility of urban area and high traffic source leading to run off as well as rock types may result in variations observed. Hence, very worrying, especially that these sources of water were consumed directly as drinking water or eye drops without knowing its content. Further tests, coupled with supportive soil and conductivity studies, are required to test all possible similar natural sources to safeguard the health of people.
The risks of mercury use have prompted the establishment of Minamata Convention on Mercury which placed strong emphasis on management of mercury-added products. This convention aims to reduce and phase out the use, manufacturing and trade of mercury-added products including batteries, switches and non-electronic measuring devices. This commitment will cause significant impacts especially in the developing countries in designing the right approach to achieve it. This is also true for medical industry which is well known for the utilization of mercury-added devices and dental amalgam in its services but had embarked on efforts in eliminating mercury for many years. The experiences learned within a medical facility can be useful in efforts to meet this global ambition of mercury phase out. This paper aims to provide conceptual discussion on the challenges faced by developing countries and lessons learned from medical facility that can helps the formulation of appropriate approaches to manage mercury-added products. The paper adopted medical industry as a case study and used document analysis to discuss the issue. The main challenges identified for developing countries include lacks of capacity, funding, data and newer technologies. Based on analysis of previous studies, this study proposed a mercury management framework in medical facility and identified the recommended practices, namely technological application, policy instrument, capacity building and guidelines development. These identified approaches are found to have specific relationships between cost and potential impacts, hence giving flexibility for adoption based on the available resources in promoting better mercury management system.
MeSH terms: Aspirations (Psychology); Dental Amalgam; Developing Countries; Health Facilities; Health Resources; Industry; Mercury; Capacity Building
Complementary Alternative Medicine (CAM) is broadly used as an adjunct treatment for patients to treat various kinds of disease, prevent disease and to sustain and enhance quality of life of the users. The study is aimed to investigate the association between CAM uses, Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) and anthropometric indices among workers or staffs in Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (UniSZA) Gong Badak Campus, Kuala Terengganu. A total of 300 subjects participated in this study and completed the malay version of modified HRQol (SF-12) questionnaires. Anthropometric measurements among the subjects were done. Independent t-test, One-way ANOVA and Pearson correlation were used to test the association and the hypotheses. The prevalence of CAM users was 37.3%. The results showed that bodily pain score domain was significantly higher among non-CAM users. Overall, male had higher Mental Health Composite Score (MCS) score than female. Physical Health Composite Score (PCS) was only correlated negatively with BMI among non-CAM users but negative correlated with body fat percentage in both CAM and non-CAM users. As conclusion, HRQoL had significant negative correlation with body fat percentage among CAM users. No association was found between CAM use and HRQoL scores.
MeSH terms: Adipose Tissue; Complementary Therapies; Analysis of Variance; Eugenol; Female; Humans; Malaysia; Male; Mental Health; Pain; Quality of Life; Surveys and Questionnaires; Zinc Oxide; Body Mass Index; Prevalence
Brain tumour occurrence in Malaysia demonstrates an increasing trend from year to year among adults and the second most common cancer among children. Thus, the expansion of numerous research for novel therapy and treatment are necessary. The distribution of brain tumour in a specific population is important to provide substantial information about the current trends for developing new diagnostic technique and research. Consequently, this study is opted to provide descriptive data of brain tumour in Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). 217 brain tumour cases were collected from the hospital record between 2011 and 2014. The brain tumour cases were confirmed by pathologists according to WHO classification and grading. Descriptive analysis was evaluated by using Microsoft Excel and IBM SPSS version 22. Gender preponderance in this study shows very little difference. The most common adult primary brain tumour in this study was meningioma (32.7%) followed by glioblastoma (7.8%), a type of diffuse astrocytic tumour. According to age factor, brain tumour distribution pattern shows an increasing trend as the age increases and meningioma is the most common among the elder patients. Secondary tumour takes more than 10% from overall percentage of brain tumour cases. In conclusion, the descriptive data presentation in this study is very helpful to provide baseline information on the current brain tumour occurrence in this region.
MeSH terms: Adult; Age Factors; Astrocytoma; Brain Neoplasms; Child; Glioblastoma; Hospital Records; Humans; Malaysia; Meningeal Neoplasms; Meningioma; World Health Organization; Neoplasms, Second Primary; Pathologists
Dengue fever is one of the most dangerous vector-borne diseases. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), dengue fever is a mosquito-borne infection caused by virus serotype DEN-1, DEN-2, DEN-3 and DEN-4. In Malaysia, dengue fever cases are on the rise from 6,000 cases in 1995 to over 40,000 in 2010, and this number is still rising. In 2014, the increase of dengue fever cases was alarming. It was reported that up to the end of the year 2014, there were 108,698 notified cases, indicating an increment of 151% compared to the same period of time in 2013 with only 43,346 reported cases. Selangor was the highest contributor of dengue fever cases in 2014. The objective of this paper is to study the relationship between climatic factors namely temperature, rainfall and humidity to the prevalence of dengue fever in Subang Jaya and Sepang district, Selangor. Data on monthly average temperature, precipitation, relative humidity and dengue fever cases for each month in 2014 and 2013 were collected. Data collection was dealt with a few institutions such as Malaysian Meteorological Department, Subang Jaya and Sepang Municipal Council and health district offices. Data were analysed using SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) Version 20. General linear model analysis was used to investigate the relationship between the climatic variables and dengue prevalence. Results and Discussion: Based on the general linear model, rainfall and humidity were found to have significant relationships to monthly dengue fever cases (p= <0.001, p= 0.002). Rainfall was identified as the most significant predictor because rainfall can provide more breeding places for Aedes mosquitoes. As for humidity, higher relative humidity had been associated with increased Aedes aegypti feeding activity, survival and egg development. Temperature was not significantly related to monthly dengue fever cases (p= 0.561) in this study. However, this could be due to the short period of study. Conclusion: Climatic factors play an important role in the prevalence of dengue fever. However, there are many other factors of dengue fever that should be considered such as urbanisation as well as community knowledge, attitude and practice.
MeSH terms: Aedes; Animals; Breeding; Dengue; Dengue Virus; Humidity; Malaysia; Temperature; Urbanization; World Health Organization; Prevalence; Linear Models; Meteorology; Serogroup