Aim: The objective of this study was to assess the school environment by interviewing the teachers and compare the school environment score between rural and urban schools in Terengganu, Malaysia.
Methods: Thirty-two teachers from 16 primary schools in Terengganu were interviewed using a set of validated Malay version "School Environmental Mapping" questionnaire. A total of 76 items consisting of four domains of school environment factor: physical (what is available) with 41 items; economic (what the costs are) with nine items; political (what the rules are) with nine items; and socio-cultural (what the attitudes and beliefs are) with 17 items. Every item was questioned using an initial closed question followed by an open question when the criteria were not met or need further information regarding those particular items.
Results: The present study revealed that the school environment of school in state of Terengganu is still low and not satisfied. Based on the schoolteacher's information and observation, there are significant barriers to promoting healthy eating and physical activity at school e.g. limited financial and budget allocation; lack of school facilities; lack of manpower to organise and monitor the programme; lack of participation and cooperation from parents; and no enforcement and serious action from authorized personnel on street hawkers near the school. This is reflected by the score achieved for 16 schools in Terengganu was only 63.05%. The political environment indicated the highest score among the domains, which was 77.78%, whereas, the lowest score was an economic environment (50.00%). Upon comparing between the urban and rural areas, the present study reported that there was a significant difference between school settings (p < 0.001) for an overall school environment, in which the rural areas had a significantly higher score than urban counterparts (64.86% vs 59.34%, p < 0.001). For each domain of the school environment, the findings showed that only two domains (physical and political environment) were significantly different between school settings.
Conclusion: This study revealed that the level of a healthy school environment among schools in both settings is still not satisfied. Addressing the obesogenic elements of school environments is one of the strategies in prevention since the school environments exert a great influence on children's behaviour.
METHODS: We adopted a nested case-control design within a cohort of school teachers. Working teachers from six states of Peninsular Malaysia, and had experienced incident CVD before a right-censored date (31st December 2021) were defined as cases. Incident CVD was operationally defined as the development of non-fatal acute coronary syndrome (ACS), stroke, congestive cardiac failure, deep vein thrombosis or peripheral arterial disease before the censored date. Controls were working teachers who did not acquire an incident CVD before the similar right-censored date. All controls were randomly selected, with a ratio of one case to four controls, from among the working teachers in one of the states in Peninsular Malaysia. We used a shortened version of the Malay-validated World Health Organization-Health and Work Performance Questionnaire (WHO-HPQ) to estimate the workplace productivity effect among teachers with incident CVD (cases). The same questionnaire was distributed to teachers in a single state of Peninsular Malaysia who did not experience incident CVD (controls). Absenteeism, presenteeism and annual monetary loss were computed based on the scoring rules in the WHO-HPQ. Analysis of covariance was performed with covariate adjustment using propensity scores. The bootstrapping method was applied to obtain better estimates of marginal mean differences, along with standard errors (SE) and appropriate effect sizes.
RESULTS: We recruited 48 cases (baseline mean age = 42.4 years old, 54.2% females) and 192 randomly selected controls (baseline mean age = 36.2 years old, 99.0% females). The majority of the cases had ACS (73.9%). No significant difference was observed in absenteeism between cases and controls. The mean self-rated job performance score was lower for cases (7.63, SE = 0.21) compared to controls (8.60, SE = 0.10). Marginal mean scores of absolute presenteeism among cases (76.30) were lower (p school teachers who experienced incident CVD and the annual cost of presenteeism was substantial. Implementing supportive work strategies in school settings is recommended to increase absolute presenteeism, which can lead to a reduction in the annual cost of presenteeism among teachers experiencing incident CVD.
METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study conducted among the public secondary school teachers in the central region of Peninsular Malaysia from May to July 2013. A total of 150 and 203 teachers were recruited to perform exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), respectively. Reliability testing was evaluated on 141 teachers via internal consistency and two-week interval test-retest.
RESULTS: The 12-item three-factor structure of MSPSS-M was revised to 8-item two-factor structure. The revised MSPSS-M demonstrated excellent fit in CFA with adequate divergent and convergent validity and good factor loadings (0.80-0.90). The revised MSPSS-M also displayed good internal consistency with Cronbach's alpha of 0.91, 0.93 and 0.92 and good test-retest reliability with intraclass correlation of 0.89, 0.88 and 0.88 in the total scale, family and friends factors, respectively.
CONCLUSION: The revised 8-item MSPSS-M is a reliable and valid tool for assessment of perceived social support among teachers.
OBJECTIVE: To review the prevalence of illness, stress, and corresponding risk factors among educators in Malaysia.
METHOD: Scopus, ProQuest, PubMed, ScienceDirect, CAB, and other computerized databases were searched according to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines to identify studies published between January 2013 and April 2019 on the prevalence and associated risk factors of illness and stress among educators (S1 Checklist). The keywords used included educator, teacher, lecturer, academic staff, teaching profession, university staff, academician, faculty, illness, injury, disease, pain, WMSD, dysphonia, hoarseness, stress, mental health, strain, health problem, disorder, and/or Malaysia. Selected studies were evaluated by quality assessment.
RESULTS: Twenty-two articles fulfilled the eligibility criteria. The prevalence of illness and stress was determined for low back pain (33.3-72.9%); upper back pain (33.33-56.4%); neck/shoulder pain (40.4-80.1%); upper arm discomfort (91.3%); forearm pain (89.6%); wrist pain (16.7-93.2%); hip pain (13.2-40.9%); thigh discomfort (91.8%); lower leg discomfort (90.5%); knee pain (23.7-88.0%); ankle/feet pain (19.3-87.7%); elbow pain (3.5-13.0%); voice disorder (10.4-13.0%) and stress (5.5-25.9%). Sex, education level, teaching experience, quality of life, anxiety, depression, coping styles, and others were reported as associated risk factors across the studies.
CONCLUSIONS: There appears to be a cause for concern regarding musculoskeletal disorders, voice disorder, and stress reported among educators in Malaysia. While most risk factors matched those reported in studies elsewhere, others such as school characteristics (school level, government or private school, and location [rural/urban]) have not been investigated.
Methods: A cross-sectional analytical observational study was conducted among 380 secondary school teachers in Kelantan, Malaysia. A self-administered questionnaire addressing sociodemographic data and factors influencing CVD screening activities was administered. Descriptive analysis, simple and multiple logistic regression analyses were performed.
Results: A total of 348 teachers responded to the questionnaire, with a response rate of 91.6%. The prevalence of optimal CVD screening activities was 29.3% (95% CI: 24.52, 34.08). Age, knowledge of CVD screening, family history of CVD and availability of health facilities were significantly linked to CVD screening.
Conclusion: The prevalence of optimal screening activities was low. A great majority of the factors contributing to optimal screening were modifiable. Health care providers should widely implement global health-oriented rather than disease-orientated assessment in their daily practice.