METHOD: Participants of Juara Sihat (n=55) were followed-up at 18 months after completion of the intervention. Juara Sihat intervention was implemented over 12 weeks and focused on four key components: (i) five one-hour nutrition education classes, (ii) four one-hour physical activity education sessions, (iii) family involvement, and (iv) empowerment of Parents and Teachers Association. Anthropometric variables (body mass index, body fat percentage and waist circumference) were measured and physical activity level was evaluated by using Physical Activity Questionnaire for Children (PAQ-C) at baseline (P0), immediately upon completion of intervention (P1), at three-month post-intervention (P2), and at 18-month postintervention (P3). Analyses of repeated measures analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) with intention-to-treat principle were applied.
RESULTS: Sustained effects were found in BMI-for-age z-score which showed a reduction (P0 2.41±0.84 vs P3 2.27±0.81) and physical activity level which showed positive improvements (P0 2.46±0.62 vs P3 2.87±0.76) at 18 months after intervention was completed. Body fat and waist circumference had increased over the same time period.
CONCLUSION: Overall, this study successfully demonstrated sustained intervention effects of Juara Sihat intervention on BMI-for-age z-score and physical activity, but not on body fat percentage and waist circumference.
METHODS: Using a purposive sampling method, this study was conducted on dietitians practising in the Malaysian hospitals (government and private). The Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (TEQ), a validated 16-item questionnaire was self-administered, either by online survey method or face-to-face method. Additional information on gender, ethnicity, years of experience and percentage of working time spent on clinical, administrative and other areas were collected.
RESULTS: A total of 69 dietitians participated in the study (private (n = 36) and government (n = 33)). The dietitians' mean total TEQ scores were 49.72 ± 5.62 (score ranged between 35 and 63). Significant difference of mean total TEQ scores was found between dietitians from private (51.06 ± 5.26) and government hospitals (48.27 ± 5.72). There was no significant difference in the level of empathy by gender, ethnicity, years of experience and percentage of time spent on clinical consultations, administration or others while at work.
CONCLUSIONS: Results from this study showed that there were differences in empathy level of Malaysian dietitians by work setting. This preliminary finding serves as a baseline for future studies and could facilitate the development of dietetics education in Malaysia.
Methods: A total of 279 older adults aged 60 years and above were randomly selected. Respondents were classified as non-frail (<2 criteria) or frail (≥3 criteria) based on the 'phenotype of frailty'. A binary logistic regression was used to determine predictors of frailty.
Results: The prevalence of frailty was 18.3%. The frail older adults were positively associated with advanced age, being unmarried, hospitalisation in the previous year, poor self-rated health, and lower body mass index.
Discussion: These results give an overview on underlying effects and guiding actions for prevention programmes functioning to reverse and minimise the adverse effects of frailty syndrome.
METHODS: Data collected from patients with ACS between 2008 and 2009 for a study on cardiac rehabilitation at the Sarawak General Hospital were used for this study. QOL data were obtained using a validated version of the EuroQol five-dimensional questionnaire at baseline and at 12 months. Health utility scores were calculated using visual analogue scale scores and utility tariffs from Malaysia and the United Kingdom.
RESULTS: Data from 104 subjects from the earlier study was used. The mean age was 56.1 years, with 88.5% being men. The mean hospitalization duration was 6.3 days. The mean utility score was 0.75 at baseline and 0.82 at 12 months. There was a statistically significant improvement in utility from baseline to 12 months based on the Malaysian tariff (P = 0.014) but not with the UK tariff (P = 0.086). The QOL of patients was associated with sex and diagnosis of ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction.
CONCLUSIONS: Our results showed that there was a significant improvement in the QOL from baseline to 12 months. Only sex and diagnosis affected the QOL score at baseline because of limited variables available for testing. It also reconfirms the importance of applying the appropriate, country-specific utility tariffs in QOL studies. Despite limitations, the study is useful toward describing QOL among a group of Malaysian patients with ACS.
Methods: About 497 cancer patients completed a Persian version of the 21-item Death Depression Scale-Revised. The face, content and construct validity of the scale were ascertained. Reliability was also assessed using internal consistency, construct reliability and intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC).
Results: Construct validity determined one factor with an eigenvalue greater than 1. The model had a good fit (χ2 (179, N = 248) = 520.345, P < 0.001; χ2/df = 2.907, CFI = 0.916, TLI = 0.902, IFI = 0.917, SRMR = 0.049 and RMSEA = 0.088 (90% confidence interval = 0.079-0.097)) with all factors loadings greater than 0.5 and statistically significant. The internal consistency, construct reliability and ICC were greater than 0.70. Convergent validity of the scale was demonstrated.
Conclusions: Findings revealed that the Persian version of the Death Depression Scale-Revised is valid and reliable, and may be used to assess and evaluate death depression in Iranian patients with advanced cancer.