Protein efficiency ratio (PER) and protein digestibility are important parameters used in protein quality determination. Protein nutritive values of selected protein sources: buffalo meat, casein, soy protein isolate, and tempeh, with sodium caseinate as a reference formulation, were evaluated. Determination of proximate analysis, protein quality and protein digestibility were monitored. Procedures for evaluation of protein quality and digestibility included PER using the rat bioassay and in vivo Apparent Protein Digestibility (APD). The rats fed with buffalo meat had the highest mean increase in body weight (102.73g±8.95) while rats fed with tempeh had the lowest mean for increase in body weight (16.34g±9.11). Although the mean for body weight gained showed significant differences between all treatments (P0.05) found between casein and soy protein isolate for total food intake. For the PER value, buffalo meat had the highest value (2.99), followed by sodium caseinate (2.41), casein (1.93), soy protein isolate (1.52) and tempeh (1.10). The PER value for buffalo meat (2.99) was higher than sodium caseinate (2.41) while the rest of the treatment were comparatively lower than sodium caseinate. For the in vivo apparent protein digestibility, tempeh had the highest value (91.41%±3.76), followed by casein (91.34%±3.15), buffalo meat (90.79%±1.44), soy protein isolate (89.52%±2.96) and sodium caseinate (89.47%±2.31).
Protein Efficiency Ratio (PER) is the most widely used method for determining protein quality. The studies involved a few category of products as raw materials namely poultry products, beef burger products, fish and fish products, soy products and palm kernel cake in animal diet preparation were compiled to compare the data. Data from the proximate analysis showed that protein content in soy protein isolate (SPI) was the highest (95.00%) followed by meat such as mackerel fish (89.09%) and beef (88.60%). Results from feed consumption and total protein consumed showed that the rats fed with mechanically deboned poultry meat (MDPM) products (excluding broiler back) consumed more feed, ranging from 469.2g to 422.3g during the study while the lowest total feed consumed (157.7g) was recorded in the rat fed a diet of fermented palm kernel cake (fPKC). The total protein consumed by rat for diets of fish and fish products such as canned sardine was 62.36g, mackerel 61.76g and anchovy at 58.91g, followed by MDPM products. Tempeh (14.72g) and fPKC diet (16.3g) were among the lowest total protein consumed by the rats. Growth and PER data for rats fed a diet of canned sardine, anchovy and mackerel, as well as mechanically deboned turkey meat (MDTM) and mechanically deboned chicken meat (MDCM) had higher mean body weight (154.80g, 145.20g, 144.81g, 148.7g and 142.5g respectively) compared to rats fed with plant protein diet such as SPI, tempeh and PKC (34.79g, 16.34g and 16.60g respectively) whereas rats fed diets containing fPKC had a mean body weight loss of 24.4g. MDPM showed higher PER value (ranging from 3.01 to 3.34) compared to hamburger group, pure beef and fish group. Tempeh and SPI had lower PER of 1.02 and 1.52 respectively while the lowest PER of 0.50 and -1.50 were shown in PKC and fPKC. The highest digestibility was shown in mackerel (96.99%), followed by canned sardine (96.88%), tempeh (91.41%), meat (90.79%) and pure beef burger (90.04%) while digestibility of PKC and fPKC were much lower (45.70% and 22.60%). Lipid profile of rats fed with palm based fat beef burger showed that palm fat(PF) and red PF did not affect the total cholestrol concentration but resulted in higher high density lipoprotein (HDL)- cholesterol concentration in their blood serum. In summary, the utilization of PF and red PF in beef burger increased the HDL-cholesterol and has no effect on the concentration of total cholesterol in rat blood serum.
Introduction: Leadership is hard to define, but it’s easy to recognize. Leaders know that to lead they must keep up their leadership skills. Effective leadership skills required from nurse managers which include the ability to create an organization culture that combines high-quality health care and patient/employee safety with highly developed collaborative and team-building skills. This paper presents the preliminary study of the development of the assess- ment leadership tool emphasising on the process of validation and implementation of necessary steps in tool devel- opment. Methods: Questionnaires on leadership style was adopted from Northouse (2014) and working motivation from Purohit et al., (2016). Modification for leadership styles from 35 modified into 48 question and tool on nurses’ motivation from 19 items modified into 28 items. Developed questionnaires were finalized with literature guidance and two content experts. A pre- test was done with 30 respondents for each set of questionnaires. Results: Preliminary development of tool Reliability test result shown that for leadership styles questionnaires which are consisted of 48 items is (α = 0 .77) and working motivation consisted of 28 items is (α = 0.70).Minor modification needed after the lit- erature searching and analysis of pre-test stage, the discussion with expert person after they go through the question- naires also suggested some additional info are needed. After doing validation process the questionnaires are more stable and valid to use for the author target group. Conclusion: These leadership styles assessments are beneficial to guide nurse managers to use suitable styles to manage their nursing staffs. Assessment on working motivation among nurses is also recommended to overcome the issues on working retention among them. In future further investigation regarding which appropriate leadership style need to be explored and the level of working motivation among nursing staff should be monitored regularly.
The present study is to determine the level of depression, anxiety and stress among Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) clinical year medical students and their help seeking behaviour in relation to their psychological aspect. A cross-sectional study was conducted in UKM Medical Centre for three months duration. The study population was the third, fourth and fifth year medical students via proportional sampling. They were given questionnaires consisting of socio-demographic items, Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale 21 – Bahasa Malaysia version BM-DASS21 and questions regarding help-seeking behaviors. Psychometric assessment (BMDASS21) estimated the level of depression, anxiety and stress among medical students. Help-seeking behavior questions assessed the use of medical facilities and other help-seeking sources. Regarding questions on the barriers towards seeking help from the primary health-care, three parts were evaluated: structural barriers, barriers towards perceptions on mental-health disorder and barriers towards use of primary health-care services. There were 380 medical students who were involved in this research. It was found that some students experienced depression (1.3%), anxiety (2.4%) and stress (2.4%). Majority of them preferred to seek help from friends (283; 74.5%) followed by parents (275; 72.4%). There was a significant association between students who were anxious and help seeking behaviour from formal sources: counselor (p=0.001) and religious personnel (p=0.03). Hence, it is essential to increase their awareness on psychological disorders and more efficient screening programme should be used to recognize medical students with possible emotional disorders.
The study was conducted to assess the level of understanding and the ability to extract information from a nutrition information panel (NIP) among women (n = 232, 20-59 years) in the Klang Valley, an urban area in Malaysia. The study involved the currently used format in Malaysia and three other formats, namely (i) based on Guideline Daily Amount (GDA), (ii) Multiple Traffic Light (MTL) and (iii) combination of GDA/MTL. Four hypermarkets were chosen for the face-to-face interview using a questionnaire. Subjects were selected using a convenient sampling method. The mean score for level of understanding was the highest for the current format (3.46 ± 1.12) compared to the other three tested formats (GDA = 3.09 ± 1.03, MTL = 2.72 ± 0.97, GDA/MTL combination 3.09 ± 1.36). However, most of the respondents (68.1%) would prefer the current NIP format to be changed due to difficulty in understanding (43.1%) and perceived the nutrition information to be insufficient (23.3%) and over simplified (21.6%). When other NIP formats were introduced, GDA format was the most preferred (mean score 3.52 ± 0.84) compared to the other formats (MTL = 3.41 ± 0.98; GDA/ MTL combination = 3.29 ± 0.91), including the current format used in Malaysia (3.16 ± 0.85). These findings suggest that the preferred NIP format does not necessarily lead to correct interpretation of the nutrition information. The current format should be further promoted and explained to the public to improve its usage and consumer understanding.
In Malaysia, the National Breastfeeding Policy recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life and continued up to two years. Since the 1990s, several breastfeeding promotion programmes had been implemented in the country. This article reports the findings on the prevalence of breastfeeding practice from The Third National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS III) which was conducted in 2006. A total of 2167 mothers or carers of children below two years old were interviewed representing 804,480 of the estimated population of children aged below 2 years in Malaysia. Respondents were asked whether various types of liquid or solid food were given to the child at any time during the preceding 24-hour period. The overall prevalence of ever breastfed among children aged less than 12 months was 94.7% (CI: 93.0 - 95.9). The overall prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding below 6 months was 14.5% (CI: 11.7 - 17.9). Prevalence of timely initiation was 63.7% (CI: 61.4 - 65.9) and the continued prevalence of breastfeeding up to two years was 37.4% (CI: 32.9 - 42.2). The findings suggest that the programmes implemented in the last ten years were effective in improving the prevalence of ever breastfeeding, timely initiation of breastfeeding and continued breastfeeding up to two years. However, the challenge is to improve exclusive breastfeeding practice. Longterm community-based interventions need to be carried out in partnership with the existing health care system, focusing on discouraging the use of water and infant formula, especially in the first few months of life.
Study name: National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS-2006)
We describe the distribution of body weight, height and body mass index (BMI) by age, sex and ethnicity in Malaysian adults. A national sample of 28,737 individuals aged 20 or older had usable data. They were selected by stratified 2-stage cluster sampling. Percentile tables and curves by age, sex and ethnicity are presented. The body weight and BMI distributions were right skewed, while that of height was symmetrical. BMI distribution showed the expected increase with age, while that of height decrease with age. Differences in BMI between the 2 sexes and among the 4 ethnic groups were observed. Indian had the highest BMI, followed by Malay, Chinese and other indigenous ethnic group.
Study name: National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS-1996)
Southeast Asia is a region with great potential for the emergence of a pandemic influenza virus. Global efforts to improve influenza surveillance in this region have documented the burden and seasonality of influenza viruses and have informed influenza prevention strategies, but little information exists about influenza vaccination guidelines and vaccine sales.
This study reports the food consumption patterns of adults aged 18 to 59 years in the Malaysian Adults Nutrition Survey (MANS) carried out between October 2002 and December 2003. A total of 6,742 subjects comprising 3,274 men and 3,468 women representing the northern, central , southern and east coast of Peninsular Malaysia as well as Sabah and Sarawak were interviewed. A semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) which consisted of 126 food items was used to evaluate the food consumption pattern (habitual food intake) of the respondents during the previous one- year period. The results demonstrate that nasi putih (cooked rice) was consumed by 97% of the population twice daily (average 2½ plates per day). Other food items consumed daily were marine fish, (one medium fish per day), green leafy vegetables (one cup per day) and sweetened condensed milk (three teaspoons per day. The mean frequencies for daily intake of rice, leafy vegetables, marine fish, local kuih, anchovy (ikan bilis) and biscuits were significantly higher among the rural compared to the urban adults. In contrast, more urban dwellers consumed chicken and eggs more frequently than their rural counterparts. More men than women consumed chicken and eggs more frequently. Malaysian adults showed a satisfactory habit of drinking plain water, with 99% drinking at least six glasses of plain water daily. Other beverages such as tea (47%), coffee (28%), chocolate-based drinks (23%) and cordial syrup (11%) were also consumed on daily basis, however, in a smaller proportion of the population. There were differences in the prevalence of daily consumption of foods when comparing urban and rural population, and also between men and women. The prevalence of daily consumption of marine fish among rural and urban adults was 51% and 34% respectively. For sweetened condensed milk, men and women consumed 43% and 28% respectively; however, more women drank full cream milk than men. Between the age groups, 21% of adults below 20 years old consumed chicken at least once a day, while this pattern of intake was not shown in the older age groups. Our findings show that adults, aged 50 to 59 years old, had the highest prevalence of daily consumption of full cream milk with 24% while those aged 18 to 19 years old had the lowest prevalence of daily consumption at 15%. The food consumption pattern of Malaysian adults appears to be satisfactory. However, some changes in food habits are recommended especially in substituting the less wholesome sweetened condensed milk with the more nutritious full cream or skimmed milk.
Study name: Malaysian Adult Nutrition Survey (MANS-2003)
Cryopreservation is a technique used to preserve cells for long-time storage. It is widely used in agriculture to store male gametes in liquid nitrogen. The aim of this study was to determine the optimum thawing temperature and time for samples subjected to annexin V magnetic-activated cell sorting (AnMACS) as the sperm preparation technique. Pooled semen samples from three ejaculates were divided into two groups. The treatment group was subjected both to AnMACS and to being cryopreserved, whilst the control group was cryopreserved directly without MACS. Post-thaw analysis was carried out for samples thawed at either 20°C for 13 s, 37°C for 30 s, 40°C for 7 s, 60°C for 6 s or 80°C for 5 s. Sperm kinematics, viability and capacitation status were determined for samples subjected to all thawing temperatures described. Results showed that thawing at 37°C for 13 s for MACS-processed samples was a superior option compared with other thawing procedures; there was a significant difference in P < 0.05 values for curvilinear velocity (VCL μm/s) and sperm straightness (STR %) when samples were thawed at 40°C for 7 s, with fewer capacitated spermatozoa (P < 0.05) when samples were thawed at 37°C for 30 s, 40°C for 7 s or 60°C for 6 s. Hence, we can speculate that the use of AnMACS as the sperm preparation technique can somehow enhance sperm cryosurvival rate after cryopreservation, however the fertilization potential of these cells has yet to be determined.
The Malaysian Adults Nutrition Survey (MANS) was carried out between October 2002 and July 2003, involving 6,775 men and 3,441 women aged 18 - 59 years. Anthropometric assessment showed that the overall mean body weight and BMI were 62.65 kg (CI: 62.20, 63.09) and 24.37 kg/m2 (CI: 24.21, 24.53) respectively. Based on the WHO (1998) classification of BMI, 12.15% (CI: 11.26, 13.10) were obese (BMI > 30 kg/m2), and 26.71% (CI: 25.50, 27.96) overweight (BMI > 25 - 29.9 kg/m2). Significantly, more women were obese [14.66% (CI: 13.37, 16.04)] while significantly more men were overweight [28.55% (CI: 26.77, 30.40)]. Ethnicitywise, prevalence of obesity was highest among the Malays [15.28% (CI: 13.91, 16.77)] while overweight was highest for the Indians [31.01% (CI: 26.64, 35.76)]. Both obesity and overweight were highest among those aged 40 - 49 years. Obesity was highest for those whose household income was between RM1,500 - 3,500 while overweight was more prevalent for those whose household income exceeded RM3,500. The prevalence of overweight was highest for those with primary education [31.90% (CI: 29.21, 34.72)]. There was no significant urban rural differential in both obesity and overweight. The study found 9.02% (CI:8.82, 10.61) with chronic energy deficiency (CED) (BMI < 18.5 kg/m2). The prevalence of CED was relatively higher in the indigenous population (Orang Asli) [14.53% (CI: 5.14, 34.77)], subjects aged 18-19 years [26.24% (CI: 21.12, 32.09)], and with monthly household income of < RM1,500 [10.85% (CI: 9.63, 12.20)]. The prevalence of CED was not significantly different among the geographical zones and educational levels, and between urban/rural areas and sexes. The results call for priority action to address the serious problem of overweight and obesity among Malaysian adults as it poses a grave burden to the country's resources and development.
Study name: Malaysian Adult Nutrition Survey (MANS-2003)
INTRODUCTION: Meal patterns have received little attention in nutrition studies. The aim of this study is to present the findings on general meal patterns of Malaysian adults.
METHODS: The Malaysian Adults Nutrition Survey (MANS), carried out in 2002 and 2003, involved 6,928 adults selected by stratified random sampling from all households by zone in Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak.
RESULTS: In general, the results showed that most respondents (74.16%) ate three meals per day; 89.20% of the respondents consumed breakfast, while 88.57% consumed lunch and 91.97% consumed dinner with no significant difference in terms of sex. In Peninsular Malaysia, the Northern Zone had the highest number of people consuming breakfast compared to other zones. Meanwhile, the population in Sarawak had the largest proportion of people consuming lunch and dinner, but the smallest proportion of people consuming breakfast. A significantly higher number of the rural population consumed breakfast and lunch than urbanites; however there was no significant difference in dinner consumption. Generally, breakfast consumption increased with age whereby significant difference existed between the 18 to 19 years age group and the age group of 30 years and older. Lunch intake among the age groups showed no significant difference. In contrast, dinner consumption was significantly lower among the 18 to 19 years age group compared to all other age groups. Comparison among the ethnic groups showed that the Indian population had the lowest percentage of having breakfast and lunch while the Orang Asli had the lowest percentage of consuming dinner. However, the Orang Asli recorded the highest percentage for taking breakfast and lunch while the Chinese had the highest percentage of taking dinner.
CONCLUSION: Considering that Malaysian adults consumed their conventional breakfast, lunch and dinner, these findings indicatethat Malaysians are maintaining their traditional meal patterns.
Study name: Malaysian Adult Nutrition Survey (MANS-2003)
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 may inflict a post-viral condition known as post-COVID-19 syndrome (PCS) or long-COVID. Studies measuring levels of inflammatory and vascular biomarkers in blood, serum, or plasma of COVID-19 survivors with PCS versus non-PCS controls have produced mixed findings. Our review sought to meta-analyse those studies. A systematic literature search was performed across five databases until 25 June 2022, with an updated search on 1 November 2022. Data analyses were performed with Review Manager and R Studio statistical software. Twenty-four biomarkers from 23 studies were meta-analysed. Higher levels of C-reactive protein (Standardized mean difference (SMD) = 0.20; 95% CI: 0.02-0.39), D-dimer (SMD = 0.27; 95% CI: 0.09-0.46), lactate dehydrogenase (SMD = 0.30; 95% CI: 0.05-0.54), and leukocytes (SMD = 0.34; 95% CI: 0.02-0.66) were found in COVID-19 survivors with PCS than in those without PCS. After sensitivity analyses, lymphocytes (SMD = 0.30; 95% CI: 0.12-0.48) and interleukin-6 (SMD = 0.30; 95% CI: 0.12-0.49) were also significantly higher in PCS than non-PCS cases. No significant differences were noted in the remaining biomarkers investigated (e.g., ferritin, platelets, troponin, and fibrinogen). Subgroup analyses suggested the biomarker changes were mainly driven by PCS cases diagnosed via manifestation of organ abnormalities rather than symptomatic persistence, as well as PCS cases with duration of <6 than ≥6 months. In conclusion, our review pinpointed certain inflammatory and vascular biomarkers associated with PCS, which may shed light on potential new approaches to understanding, diagnosing, and treating PCS.