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Fulltext Parental perception of their children's weight status, and its association with their nutrition and obesity knowledge

Muhammad NA, Omar K, Shah SA, Muthupalaniappen L, Arshad F

Asia Pac J Clin Nutr, 2008;17(4):597-602.
PMID: 19114396

BACKGROUND: Worldwide the prevalence of overweight and obesity in children is escalating. Parents’ recognition of overweight or obesity in their own children is very important for a successful intervention in these children. This study examined parental perception of their children’s weight status, and its association with their knowledge on nutrition and obesity.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a cross sectional study of parents with children aged 9 to 12 years, in a primary school of Kuala Lumpur. Parents responded to a self-administered questionnaire which contains parental perception of their child weight status as well as knowledge on nutrition and obesity. The parents’ perception of the children’s weight status was then compared with the actual measured weight status.
RESULTS: There were 204 parents who participated in the study. Parents were found to underestimate their child weight status and 38.2% were inaccurate in their perception. The mean score of knowledge on nutrition and obesity was 78.5±14.4; and this did not associate with the accuracy of their perception on the child weight status. Parents showed inadequate knowledge in food pyramid and preparation of low fat meals.
CONCLUSION: The Malaysian Health Campaigns had resulted in overall good knowledge on nutrition and obesity in the parents except in few domains. However, this was insufficient to make the parents recognize the growing overweight and obesity problem in their children.
Key Words: overweight, obesity, children, parental perception, knowledge
Preferences of Malaysian cancer patients in communication of bad news

Eng TC, Yaakup H, Shah SA, Jaffar A, Omar K

Asian Pac J Cancer Prev, 2012;13(6):2749-52.
PMID: 22938453

BACKGROUND: Breaking bad news to cancer patients is a delicate and challenging task for most doctors. Better understanding of patients' preferences in breaking bad news can guide doctors in performing this task.
OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to describe the preferences of Malaysian cancer patients regarding the communication of bad news.
METHODOLOGY: This was a cross-sectional study conducted in the Oncology clinic of a tertiary teaching hospital. Two hundred adult cancer patients were recruited via purposive quota sampling. They were required to complete the Malay language version of the Measure of Patients' Preferences (MPP-BM) with minimal researcher assistance. Their responses were analysed using descriptive statistics. Association between demographic characteristics and domain scores were tested using non-parametric statistical tests.
RESULTS: Nine items were rated by the patients as essential: "Doctor is honest about the severity of my condition", "Doctor describing my treatment options in detail", "Doctor telling me best treatment options", Doctor letting me know all of the different treatment options", "Doctor being up to date on research on my type of cancer", "Doctor telling me news directly", "Being given detailed info about results of medical tests", "Being told in person", and "Having doctor offer hope about my condition". All these items had median scores of 5/5 (IQR:4-5). The median scores for the three domains were: "Content and Facilitation" 74/85, "Emotional Support" 23/30 and "Structural and Informational Support" 31/40. Ethnicity was found to be significantly associated with scores for "Content and Facilitation" and "Emotional Support". Educational status was significantly associated with scores for "Structural and Informational Support".
CONCLUSION: Malaysian cancer patients appreciate the ability of the doctor to provide adequate information using good communication skills during the process of breaking bad news. Provision of emotional support, structural support and informational support were also highly appreciated.
Fulltext Knowledge of colorectal cancer among patients presenting with rectal bleeding and its association with delay in seeking medical advice

Mohd Hashim S, Tong SF, Omar K, Abdul Rashid MR, Shah SA, Sagap I

Asian Pac J Cancer Prev, 2011;12(8):2007-11.
PMID: 22292642

BACKGROUND: Knowledge is believed to be a driving factor for patients' early presentation for healthcare. This study was conducted to assess knowledge of colorectal cancer among subjects presenting with rectal bleeding and to determine its association with late presentation.

METHODS: A cross-sectional study of 80 patients with rectal bleeding, aged 40 and above, was conducted between December 2008 and June 2009 in the endoscopy unit, University Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre. The research instruments used in this study was a self-administered questionnaire including data on duration of rectal bleeding, first medical consultation and knowledge of colorectal cancer.

RESULTS: Sixty percent of subjects with rectal bleeding delayed seeking medical advice. Subjects were more aware of symptoms of non-colorectal cancers compared to symptoms of colorectal cancer. The majority of subjects (63.8%) correctly identified rectal bleeding as a symptom but were not aware of the best screening method to detect colorectal cancer. Half of the subjects knew increasing age and genetic background to be risk factors for colorectal carcinoma. However, knowledge of colorectal cancer was not found to be significantly associated with delay in seeking help.

CONCLUSION: Findings indicate poor awareness of colorectal cancer among the subjects. Although public education of colorectal cancer is important for early presentation on rectal bleeding, further studies are advocated to evaluate other factors influencing patients' help seeking behavior other than knowledge.
Fulltext Factors influencing late consultation among patients with rectal bleeding in University Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre

Hashim SM, Omar K, Fah TS, Rashid RA, Daud TI, Shah SA, et al.

Asian Pac J Cancer Prev, 2010;11(5):1335-9.
PMID: 21198288

BACKGROUND: Patients' delay in the presentation with rectal bleeding had been identified as a factor for late diagnosis of colorectal cancer. This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of delay in consulting a medical practitioner and identifying associated factors.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study of 80 patients with rectal bleeding, aged 40 and above, was conducted between December 2008 and June 2009 in the endoscopy unit, University Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre. The self-administered questionnaire included data on sociodemographic, concern of rectal bleeding, whether patients sought initial advice, any self treatment prior to medical consultation and patients' opinion on causes of their own rectal bleeding.

RESULTS: The prevalence of delay in the presentation of rectal bleeding was 60%. Patients who were less worried (OR 9.6; 95% CI 3.3-27.5), who did not seek anyoneandapos;s advice (OR 11.8; 95% CI 3.8-36.8) and took some treatment before seeking medical consultation (OR 5.0; 95% CI 1.0-24.1) were significantly more likely to delay. Multiple logistic regression revealed that less worry of rectal bleeding and not seeking anyoneandapos;s advice were important predictors (p<0.05). The majority of patients attributed their bleeding to benign causes.

CONCLUSION: A high proportion of patients with rectal bleeding in the high risk group delayed in seeking medical advice. Public education needs to focus on interventions to reduce the delay in presenting and diagnosis of colorectal carcinoma.
Correlates of depression, anxiety and stress among Malaysian university students

Shamsuddin K, Fadzil F, Ismail WS, Shah SA, Omar K, Muhammad NA, et al.

Asian J Psychiatr, 2013 Aug;6(4):318-23.
PMID: 23810140 DOI: 10.1016/j.ajp.2013.01.014

University students face not only challenges related with independent living, but also academic challenges. This predisposes them to depression, anxiety and stress, which are fairly common.
Fulltext Factors influencing insulin acceptance among type 2 diabetes mellitus patients in a primary care clinic: a qualitative exploration

Abu Hassan H, Tohid H, Mohd Amin R, Long Bidin MB, Muthupalaniappen L, Omar K

BMC Fam Pract, 2013;14:164.
PMID: 24164794 DOI: 10.1186/1471-2296-14-164

BACKGROUND: Many Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) patients refuse insulin therapy even when they require this modality of treatment. However, some eventually accept insulin. This study aimed to explore the T2DM patients' reasons for accepting insulin therapy and their initial barriers to use insulin.
METHODS: This qualitative study interviewed twenty-one T2DM patients at a primary care clinic who had been on insulin for more than a year through three in-depth interviews and three focus group discussions. A semi structured interview protocol was used and the sessions were audio-recorded. Subsequently, thematic analysis was conducted to identify major themes.
RESULTS: The participants' acceptance of insulin was influenced by their concerns and beliefs about diabetes and insulin. Concerns about complications of poorly controlled diabetes and side effects of other treatment regime had resulted in insulin acceptance among the participants. They also had a strong belief in insulin benefits and effectiveness. These concerns and beliefs were the results of having good knowledge about the diabetes and insulin, experiential learning, as well as doctors' practical and emotional support that helped them to accept insulin therapy and become efficient in self-care management. These factors also allayed their negative concerns and beliefs towards diabetes and insulin, which were their barriers for insulin acceptance as it caused fear to use insulin. These negative concerns were related to injection (self-injection, needle phobia, injection pain), and insulin use (inconvenience, embarrassment, lifestyle restriction, negative social stigma, and poor self-efficacy), whereas the negative beliefs were 'insulin could cause organ damage', 'their diabetes was not serious enough', 'insulin is for life-long', and 'insulin is for more severe disease only'.
CONCLUSIONS: Exploring patients' concerns and beliefs about diabetes and insulin is crucial to assist physicians in delivering patient-centered care. By understanding this, physicians could address their concerns with aim to modify their patients' misconceptions towards insulin therapy. In addition, continuous educations as well as practical and emotional support from others were found to be valuable for insulin acceptance.
TRIAL REGISTRATION: Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia FF-214-2009.
Study site: Primary Care clinic, Pusat Perubatan Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (PPUKM), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Fulltext The impact of a disease management program (COACH) on the attainment of better cardiovascular risk control in dyslipidaemic patients at primary care centres (The DISSEMINATE Study): a randomised controlled trial

Selvaraj FJ, Mohamed M, Omar K, Nanthan S, Kusiar Z, Subramaniam SY, et al.

BMC Fam Pract, 2012;13:97.
PMID: 23046818 DOI: 10.1186/1471-2296-13-97

BACKGROUND: To evaluate the efficacy of Counselling and Advisory Care for Health (COACH) programme in managing dyslipidaemia among primary care practices in Malaysia. This open-label, parallel, randomised controlled trial compared the COACH programme delivered by primary care physicians alone (PCP arm) and primary care physicians assisted by nurse educators (PCP-NE arm).
METHODS: This was a multi-centre, open label, randomised trial of a disease management programme (COACH) among dyslipidaemic patients in 21 Malaysia primary care practices. The participating centres enrolled 297 treatment naïve subjects who had the primary diagnosis of dyslipidaemia; 149 were randomised to the COACH programme delivered by primary care physicians assisted by nurse educators (PCP-NE) and 148 to care provided by primary care physicians (PCP) alone. The primary efficacy endpoint was the mean percentage change from baseline LDL-C at week 24 between the 2 study arms. Secondary endpoints included mean percentage change from baseline of lipid profile (TC, LDL-C, HDL-C, TG, TC: HDL ratio), Framingham Cardiovascular Health Risk Score and absolute risk change from baseline in blood pressure parameters at week 24. The study also assessed the sustainability of programme efficacy at week 36.
RESULTS: Both study arms demonstrated improvement in LDL-C from baseline. The least squares (LS) mean change from baseline LDL-C were -30.09% and -27.54% for PCP-NE and PCP respectively. The difference in mean change between groups was 2.55% (p=0.288), with a greater change seen in the PCP-NE arm. Similar observations were made between the study groups in relation to total cholesterol change at week 24. Significant difference in percentage change from baseline of HDL-C were observed between the PCP-NE and PCP groups, 3.01%, 95% CI 0.12-5.90, p=0.041, at week 24. There was no significant difference in lipid outcomes between 2 study groups at week 36 (12 weeks after the programme had ended).
CONCLUSION: Patients who received coaching and advice from primary care physicians (with or without the assistance by nurse educators) showed improvement in LDL-cholesterol. Disease management services delivered by PCP-NE demonstrated a trend towards add-on improvements in cholesterol control compared to care delivered by physicians alone; however, the improvements were not maintained when the services were withdrawn.
TRIAL REGISTRATION:
National Medical Research Registration (NMRR) Number: NMRR-08-287-1442Trial Registration Number (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier): NCT00708370.
Fulltext Medicines information provided by pharmaceutical representatives: a comparative study in Australia and Malaysia

Othman N, Vitry AI, Roughead EE, Ismail SB, Omar K

BMC Public Health, 2010;10:743.
PMID: 21118551 DOI: 10.1186/1471-2458-10-743

BACKGROUND: Pharmaceutical representatives provide medicines information on their promoted products to doctors. However, studies have shown that the quality of this information is often low. No study has assessed the medicines information provided by pharmaceutical representatives to doctors in Malaysia and no recent evidence in Australia is present. We aimed to compare the provision of medicines information by pharmaceutical representatives to doctors in Australia and Malaysia.
METHODS: Following a pharmaceutical representative's visit, general practitioners in Australia and Malaysia who had agreed to participate, were asked to fill out a questionnaire on the main product and claims discussed during the encounter. The questionnaire focused on provision of product information including indications, adverse effects, precautions, contraindications and the provision of information on the Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme (PBS) listings and restrictions (in Australia only). Descriptive statistics were produced. Chi-square analysis and clustered linear regression were used to assess differences in Australia and Malaysia.
RESULTS: Significantly more approved product information sheets were provided in Malaysia (78%) than in Australia (53%) (P < 0.001). In both countries, general practitioners reported that indications (Australia, 90%, Malaysia, 93%) and dosages (Australia, 76%, Malaysia, 82%) were frequently provided by pharmaceutical representatives. Contraindications, precautions, drug interactions and adverse effects were often omitted in the presentations (range 25% - 41%). General practitioners in Australia and Malaysia indicated that in more than 90% of presentations, pharmaceutical representatives partly or fully answered their questions on contraindications, precautions, drug interactions and adverse effects. More general practitioners in Malaysia (85%) than in Australia (60%) reported that pharmaceutical representatives should have mentioned contraindications, precautions for use, drug interaction or adverse effects spontaneously (P < 0.001). In 48% of the Australian presentations, general practitioners reported the pharmaceutical representatives failed to mention information on PBS listings to general practitioners.
CONCLUSIONS: Information on indications and dosages were usually provided by pharmaceutical representatives in Australia and Malaysia. However, risk and harmful effects of medicines were often missing in their presentations. Effective control of medicines information provided by pharmaceutical representatives is needed.
Fulltext Questionnaire development and validity to measure sexual intention among youth in Malaysia

Muhammad NA, Shamsuddin K, Mohd Amin R, Omar K, Thurasamy R

BMC Public Health, 2017 02 02;17(1):157.
PMID: 28152993 DOI: 10.1186/s12889-016-3949-1

BACKGROUND: From the Theory of Planned Behaviour perspective, sexual intention is determined by a permissive attitude, perception of social norms and perceived self-efficacy in performing sexual activity. The aim of this study was to develop and validate the Youth Sexual Intention Questionnaire (YSI-Q), which was designed to measure sexual intention among youths in Malaysia.
METHODS: A total of 25 items were developed based on literature reviews encompassing four main constructs: sexual intention, attitude, social norms and self-efficacy. The YSI-Q then underwent a validation process that included content and face validity, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), reliability analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). This study was conducted on unmarried youths aged 18 to 22 years who were studying in colleges around Klang Valley, Malaysia.
RESULTS: EFA supported the four factor structure, but five items were removed due to incorrect placement or low factor loading (<0.60). Internal reliability using Cronbach's alpha ranged between 0.89 and 0.94. The CFA further confirmed the construct, convergent and discriminant validity of the YSI-Q with χ 2 = 392.43, df = 164, p
Fulltext Automatic detection and quantification of WBCs and RBCs using iterative structured circle detection algorithm

Alomari YM, Sheikh Abdullah SN, Zaharatul Azma R, Omar K

Comput Math Methods Med, 2014;2014:979302.
PMID: 24803955 DOI: 10.1155/2014/979302

Segmentation and counting of blood cells are considered as an important step that helps to extract features to diagnose some specific diseases like malaria or leukemia. The manual counting of white blood cells (WBCs) and red blood cells (RBCs) in microscopic images is an extremely tedious, time consuming, and inaccurate process. Automatic analysis will allow hematologist experts to perform faster and more accurately. The proposed method uses an iterative structured circle detection algorithm for the segmentation and counting of WBCs and RBCs. The separation of WBCs from RBCs was achieved by thresholding, and specific preprocessing steps were developed for each cell type. Counting was performed for each image using the proposed method based on modified circle detection, which automatically counted the cells. Several modifications were made to the basic (RCD) algorithm to solve the initialization problem, detecting irregular circles (cells), selecting the optimal circle from the candidate circles, determining the number of iterations in a fully dynamic way to enhance algorithm detection, and running time. The validation method used to determine segmentation accuracy was a quantitative analysis that included Precision, Recall, and F-measurement tests. The average accuracy of the proposed method was 95.3% for RBCs and 98.4% for WBCs.
Fulltext Adaptive localization of focus point regions via random patch probabilistic density from whole-slide, Ki-67-stained brain tumor tissue

Alomari YM, Sheikh Abdullah SN, MdZin RR, Omar K

Comput Math Methods Med, 2015;2015:673658.
PMID: 25793010 DOI: 10.1155/2015/673658

Analysis of whole-slide tissue for digital pathology images has been clinically approved to provide a second opinion to pathologists. Localization of focus points from Ki-67-stained histopathology whole-slide tissue microscopic images is considered the first step in the process of proliferation rate estimation. Pathologists use eye pooling or eagle-view techniques to localize the highly stained cell-concentrated regions from the whole slide under microscope, which is called focus-point regions. This procedure leads to a high variety of interpersonal observations and time consuming, tedious work and causes inaccurate findings. The localization of focus-point regions can be addressed as a clustering problem. This paper aims to automate the localization of focus-point regions from whole-slide images using the random patch probabilistic density method. Unlike other clustering methods, random patch probabilistic density method can adaptively localize focus-point regions without predetermining the number of clusters. The proposed method was compared with the k-means and fuzzy c-means clustering methods. Our proposed method achieves a good performance, when the results were evaluated by three expert pathologists. The proposed method achieves an average false-positive rate of 0.84% for the focus-point region localization error. Moreover, regarding RPPD used to localize tissue from whole-slide images, 228 whole-slide images have been tested; 97.3% localization accuracy was achieved.
Fulltext The mediating effect of interpersonal distrust on the relationship between perceived organizational politics and workplace ostracism in higher education institutions

Karim DN, Abdul Majid AH, Omar K, Aburumman OJ

Heliyon, 2021 Jun;7(6):e07280.
PMID: 34258449 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e07280

Despite a widespread consensus towards the implications of workplace ostracism to employees, little research attention has been paid to exploring its determinants, especially in the educational sector. In the context of higher education institutions, workplace ostracism can lead to a number of undesired outcomes, such as deviant workplace behavior, turnover, and decreased job performance. Thus, this study aims to explore the role of perceived organizational politics in promoting workplace ostracism. Drawing on the social exchange theory, the study also attempts to identify the mediating role of interpersonal distrust in the relationship between perceived organizational politics and workplace ostracism in higher education institutions. Data were conveniently collected from 154 full-time faculty members serving in five public universities in Bangladesh. To test the research hypotheses, the study employed partial least squares path modeling. The findings revealed that there is a significant positive association between perceived organizational politics and workplace ostracism and that interpersonal distrust plays an intervening role in the relationship. These results highlight the role of perceived organizational politics and interpersonal distrust in shaping academics' workplace ostracism. Based on the findings, the study suggests both practical and theoretical implications with directions for future research.
Fulltext Assessing wellbeing: Profiling and socioeconomic status of Kenyir Lake side community, Malaysia

Ab Manaf N, Sa'at NH, A Rahim NAA, Kamaruddin SNAA, Abdullah SS, Omar K

Heliyon, 2023 Jun;9(6):e16399.
PMID: 37303545 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e16399

The Kenyir Lake side community offers numerous advantages to the local community. However, the problems of backwardness and poverty have been identified as the government's main challenges in its efforts to develop the community and maximise the advantages. Therefore, this study was conducted to identify the Kenyir Lake community's profile and assess its well-being. The study was conducted in three sub-districts near Tasik Kenyir, namely Kuala Berang, Hulu Telemong, and Jenagor, with a total of 510 respondents, who are heads of households (HOH). This study was carried out using a quantitative approach using questionnaire with a simple random sampling method. The findings of this study offered demographic profiling and discovered nine indicators of well-being, namely 1) Life Achievement, 2) Health Level, 3) Family Relationship, 4) Community Relationship, 5) Spiritual Level, 6) Safety Level and Social Problems, 7) Income or Finance, 8) Basic Facilities, and 9) Communication Technology. The study found that most respondents are satisfied with their lives now compared to 10 years ago. This study will help many parties to develop the Kenyir Lake Side Community, starting from the local authorities to the highest administration in the country.
Fulltext Norms for eating disorder examination questionnaire (EDE-Q) among secondary school students in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Musa, R., Haniff, J., Bujang, M.A., Mohamad, N.A., Omar, K., Radeef, A.S.

International Medical Journal Malaysia, 2016;15(2):57-61.
MyJurnal

Introduction: The Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q) has been widely used as a tool to
detect eating disorders. We aimed to identify the EDE-Q normative data among secondary school students in
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study involving four secondary schools in an
urban area. The respondents of secondary school students were selected using stratified sampling. Results:
There were 298 teenagers 12 to 17 years of age who participated in the study. The EDE-Q mean scores ±
standard deviation was 1.27 ± 1.08 for the total score (Global Score), 0.78 ± 0.95 for Restraint Domain, 1.02
± 1.03 for Eating Concern, 1.76 ± 1.55 for Shape Concern and 1.54 ± 1.43 for Weight Concern. Conclusion:
Mean values obtained from this study were relatively lower when compared to western populations. Shape
Concern and Weight Concern had higher scores compared to the other domains. These values are useful for
EDE-Q interpretation in Malaysia.
Adolescent pregnancy outcomes and risk factors in Malaysia

Omar K, Hasim S, Muhammad NA, Jaffar A, Hashim SM, Siraj HH

Int J Gynaecol Obstet, 2010 Dec;111(3):220-3.
PMID: 20800837 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijgo.2010.06.023

OBJECTIVE: To assess the outcomes and risk factors of adolescent pregnancies in 2 major hospitals in Malaysia.
METHODS: We conducted a case-control study of pregnant girls aged 10 through 19 years. The controls were women aged 20 through 35 years who did not become pregnant in their adolescence. Cases and controls were matched for parity and place of delivery. Data were collected from questionnaires and the hospitals' medical records.
RESULTS: The study included 102 cases and 102 controls. There were significant associations between adolescent pregnancy and low education level, low socioeconomic status, being raised by a single parent, not engaging in extracurricular school activities, engaging in unsupervised activities with peers after school, and substance abuse (P<0.05 for all); being anemic, being unsure of the expected delivery date, and having few antenatal visits and a late delivery booking; and low Apgar scores and perinatal complications.
CONCLUSION: Adolescent pregnancies are high-risk pregnancies. Better sexual health strategies are required to address the associated complications.
Fulltext Psychiatric morbidity among adult patients in a semi-urban primary care setting in Malaysia

ZamZam R, Thambu M, Midin M, Omar K, Kaur P

Int J Ment Health Syst, 2009 Jun 18;3(1):13.
PMID: 19538711 DOI: 10.1186/1752-4458-3-13

BACKGROUND: Screening for psychiatric disorders in primary care can improve the detection rate and helps in preventing grave consequences of unrecognised and untreated psychiatric morbidity. This is relevant to the Malaysian setting where mental health care is now also being provided at primary care level. The aim of this paper is to report the prevalence of psychiatric illness in a semi-urban primary care setting in Malaysia using the screening tool Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ).
METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study carried out in a semi-urban primary healthcare centre located south of Kuala Lumpur. Systematic random sampling was carried out and a total of 267 subjects completed the PHQ during the study period.
RESULTS: The proportion of respondents who had at least one PHQ positive diagnosis was 24.7% and some respondents had more than one diagnosis. Diagnoses included depressive illness (n = 38, 14.4%), somatoform disorder (n = 32, 12.2%), panic and anxiety disorders (n = 17, 6.5%), binge eating disorder (n = 9, 3.4%) and alcohol abuse (n = 6, 2.3%). Younger age (18 to 29 years) and having a history of stressors in the previous four weeks were found to be significantly associated (p = 0.036 and p = 0.044 respectively) with PHQ positive scores.
CONCLUSION: These findings are broadly similar to the findings of studies done in other countries and are a useful guide to the probable prevalence of psychiatric morbidity in primary care in other similar settings in Malaysia.
Fulltext pH effect on cellular uptake of Sn(IV) chlorine e6 dichloride trisodium salt by cancer cells in vitro

Al-Khaza'leh KA, Omar K, Jaafar MS

J Biol Phys, 2011 Jan;37(1):153-61.
PMID: 22210969 DOI: 10.1007/s10867-010-9206-4

The effects of pH value and presence of serum in an incubation medium on photosensitizer drug cellular uptake in MCF7 cancer cells have been investigated. The results showed that the presence of serum in an incubation medium reduced the drug cellular uptake at all pH values. It has been found that decreasing on pH values of the incubation medium increased the cellular uptake of the drug, demonstrating selective uptake of the sensitizer. The HepG2 liver cancer cells exhibited more drug cellular uptake than CCD-18CO normal colon cells, which assessed the selectivity uptake of photosensitizer on cancerous cells. The concentration of photosensitizer measured in 10(6) cells showed a good correlation to the incubation time. Fluorescence and absorption spectroscopy been have used to examine the cells.
Fulltext Degraded Historical Document Binarization: A Review on Issues, Challenges, Techniques, and Future Directions

Sulaiman A, Omar K, Nasrudin MF

J Imaging, 2019 Apr 12;5(4).
PMID: 34460486 DOI: 10.3390/jimaging5040048

In this era of digitization, most hardcopy documents are being transformed into digital formats. In the process of transformation, large quantities of documents are stored and preserved through electronic scanning. These documents are available from various sources such as ancient documentation, old legal records, medical reports, music scores, palm leaf, and reports on security-related issues. In particular, ancient and historical documents are hard to read due to their degradation in terms of low contrast and existence of corrupted artefacts. In recent times, degraded document binarization has been studied widely and several approaches were developed to deal with issues and challenges in document binarization. In this paper, a comprehensive review is conducted on the issues and challenges faced during the image binarization process, followed by insights on various methods used for image binarization. This paper also discusses the advanced methods used for the enhancement of degraded documents that improves the quality of documents during the binarization process. Further discussions are made on the effectiveness and robustness of existing methods, and there is still a scope to develop a hybrid approach that can deal with degraded document binarization more effectively.
Fulltext The effect of kelulut honey on fasting blood glucose and metabolic parameters in patients with impaired fasting glucose

Rashid MR, Nor Aripin KN, Syed Mohideen FB, Baharom N, Omar K, Md Taujuddin NMS, et al.

J Nutr Metab, 2019;2019:3176018.
PMID: 30863635 DOI: 10.1155/2019/3176018

Background: Impaired fasting glucose (IFG) poses a higher risk of diabetes. Honey has been reported to improve metabolic abnormalities including lowering hyperglycemia. This study is sought at determining the effect of Malaysian Kelulut honey (KH) on fasting glucose levels and metabolic parameters in IFG patients.
Methods: This quasi-experimental intervention study of 30-day duration was conducted among 60 adult patients with IFG. They were allocated into taking 30 g/day KH group (experimental group, n=30) and not taking KH group (control group, n=30). Body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, blood pressure (BP), fasting glucose, and lipid profile levels (total cholesterol, triglyceride, high-density lipoprotein, and low-density lipoprotein) were measured before and after treatment.
Results: There was no significant difference in all measured variables at day 30 compared to day 1 within both groups. Similarly, all measured variables neither at day 1 nor at day 30 had shown a statistically significant difference between the groups.
Conclusions: Daily intake of 30 g KH for 30 days resulted in insignificant effect on fasting glucose, fasting lipid profiles, and other metabolic parameters in patients with IFG. Further studies that employ longer study duration are needed to ascertain the finding.
Study site: Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM) Specialist Centre, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia, and Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.
Fulltext Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice of Oral Hygiene Among Students of a Private University

Iqbal MZ, Rathi R, Prajapati SK, Omar K, Bahari MB, Rajan S, et al.

J Pharm Bioallied Sci, 2021;13(1):123-128.
PMID: 34084058 DOI: 10.4103/jpbs.JPBS_298_20

OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study was to evaluate the knowledge, attitude, and practice among pre-final and final year students of pharmacy, medicine, biotechnology, and business faculties about oral hygiene.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional observational study was conducted to evaluate the knowledge, attitude, and practice of students towards oral hygiene at a private university in Malaysia. Validated questionnaires were distributed to a convenient stratified sample of 324 students studying in the different selected faculties, namely pharmacy, medicine, biotechnology, and business, respectively. The Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) Version 24.0 was used to analyze the data.
RESULTS: With regard to knowledge, upon evaluation, it was seen that the students of the Faculty of Pharmacy had the highest percentage of adequate knowledge, which was statistically significant with a P-value of 0.001 and the effect size of 0.246. On the evaluation of attitudes, it was seen that the Faculty of Biotechnology had the highest positive attitudes. According to race, Malay students had the highest positive attitude among all the races that participated in the study, which showed a P-value of 0.037 with the effect size of 0.034. Regarding practice, the Faculty of Pharmacy had the lowest practice compared with the other faculties. This variable had a P-value of 0.001 and showed to have significance against the practice with an effect size of 0.193.
CONCLUSION: Overall, a good attitude was seen amongst the students on their oral hygiene. It was also observed that the attitude, knowledge, and practice of the students in a private university increased with an increasing level of education.

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