In 2016, World Health Organization (WHO) estimated more than 650 million obese adults, resulting in a country's health burden. This study aims to determine the prevalence of obesity and its associated factors among Malaysian adults. A total of 5820 respondents, aged 18 to 59 years, from the National Health and Morbidity Survey 2019, were included for the data analysis. The prevalence of obesity was described and multivariate analyses were conducted to determine the factors associated with obesity. The prevalence of obesity among Malaysian adults was 20.1%, based on the findings from this study. Multivariate analyses showed that women, being Malays, Indians, and other Bumiputeras, were significantly associated with a higher risk of obesity. Besides, those diagnosed with diabetes mellitus and hypertension were also significantly associated with greater risk of obesity. This information is crucial for policy makers in formulating effective strategies or targeted programs in preventing obesity among Malaysian adults.
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health is an emerging problem globally. This study aimed to examine the mediating effect of chronic illnesses in the relationship between psychological health and the acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccine, prior to the national vaccine rollout in Malaysia. An online cross-sectional study was conducted in Malaysia between December 10, 2020, and February 9, 2021. In addition to the descriptive analyses, a mediation analysis was performed to examine the mediating effect of chronic illnesses in the relationship between psychological distress and the willingness to accept the vaccine. A total of 1738 participants completed the survey. The psychological distress levels were found to be significantly different across demographic factors such as age, gender, and social economic status. This study demonstrated a partial mediating effect of chronic illnesses in the relationship between psychological distress and vaccine acceptance.
Malaysia was slow to begin its COVID-19 immunization program for various reasons. However, it is one of the fastest developing countries to vaccinate 80% of its adult population. Nontraditional health leadership played a large role in the implementation of the National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme (NCIP). Independent opinions from academia also helped the NCIP and may be useful as a way of pushing forward recommendations that may otherwise be difficult to make.
Mental health in young people is a public health challenge worldwide, with around one-fifth of university students suffering from a 12-month mental disorder. In low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) of Southeastern Asia, resources for mental health are limited and counseling services are not regularly established at universities. This review aims to determine the prevalence of mental health problems among university students in 6 ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries (Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam) and to identify the determinants of mental health. A systematic database search (PubMed, CINAHL, PsycINFO, PubPsych, and Scopus) for peer-reviewed, English language articles, published 2010-2020, reporting prevalence data based on standardized screening instruments resulted in 335 articles; 108 were eligible for full-text analysis, of which 34 could be included in the review. Median point prevalence was 29.4% for depression, 42.4% for anxiety, 16.4% for stress, and 13.9% for disordered eating. Current suicidality was present in 7% to 8% of students. There was a high rate of psychiatric comorbidity. Despite the high prevalence of mental health problems, the willingness to seek professional help was comparatively low. Implications for mental health promotion and prevention in university settings are discussed.
The midwives play an important role in maternal and child health in developing countries, but they are rarely involved in providing family planning services, except in Indonesia. This article underscores the midwives' crucial role in supplying modern contraceptive methods in Indonesia. Data for this analysis came from 8 waves of the Indonesia Demographic and Health Survey (IDHS). The main analysis was confined to 17 216 current users of modern methods from the 2017 IDHS. The midwives delivered contraceptives to 53% of the modern-method users in Indonesia. Multinomial logistic regression shows that the odds of users obtaining their contraceptive supplies from the midwives was significantly associated with age, parity, urban-rural location, region, education, wealth, exposure to family planning, and method type. The midwives help to reduce the doctors' workload for them to focus on specialized services. Developing countries can learn from the Indonesian experience to ensure equitable access to family planning services.
This study aims to test the psychometric properties of the Malay, English, and Chinese 9-Item Shared Decision Making Questionnaire (SDM-Q-9) in breast cancer patients making treatment decisions. The original German SDM-Q-9 was translated to Malay using the back-translation method. A total of 222 newly diagnosed breast cancer patients making treatment decisions were sampled conveniently from three breast clinics between August 2015 and February 2016. A total of 66 patients answered the SDM-Q-9 in Malay, 87 in English, and 69 in Chinese. Data were analyzed using SPSS and AMOS software. SDM-Q-9 demonstrated good reliability in the three translations. All the items correlated well except for Item 1 in English. The factor loadings were within acceptable range except for Item 1 in Malay, Items 1 and 2 in English, and Items 7 and 9 in Chinese SDM-Q-9. However, no items were deleted in accordance with experts' opinions and the previous SDM-Q-9 validation studies. The Malay, English, and Chinese SDM-Q-9 demonstrated good reliability and validity.
The COVID-19 outbreak was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization in March 2020 due to rapid intercontinental spread and high morbidity and mortality. Globally, the disease has had a major impact on human lives, including health, economic, employment, psychological, and overall well-being. The COVID-19, besides causing respiratory, neurological, and cardiovascular diseases, has had significant impact on mental health. Major mental health disorders, including depression, anxiety, and stress, have risen in parallel with increasing prevalence of COVID-19. Many population groups, including children, the elderly, those with chronic illnesses, and health care workers, have been affected. This review gives an overall assessment of the prevalence of COVID-19-associated psychological morbidity. In countries in the Asia-Pacific region, prevalence of depression ranged between 4.9% and 43.1%, anxiety from 7.0% to 43.0%, and stress from 3.4% to 35.7%. As COVID-19 continues to severely affect the psychosocial well-being of the population at large, countries have developed and revised policies, guidelines, and introduced new initiatives to curb mental health issues among their citizens. In the long run, pre-disaster preparedness is important to alleviate long-term post-pandemic psychiatric morbidity and to develop psychological resilience toward disasters and pandemic, alongside investment for better mental health coverage.
Despite various efforts introduced, private health insurance coverage is still low in Malaysia. The objective of this article is to find the factors associated with not having a private health insurance in Malaysia. We analyze data involving 19 959 respondents from the 2015 National Health Morbidity Survey. In this article, we describe the prevalence of not having health insurance and conducted binary logistic regression to identify determinants of uninsured status. A total of 56.6% of the study population was uninsured. After adjusting for other variables, the likelihood of being uninsured was higher among those aged 50 years and above, females, Malay/other Bumiputra ethnicities, rural, government/semigovernment, self-employed, unpaid workers and retirees, unemployed, lower education level, without home ownership and single/widowed/divorced, daily smoker, underweight body mass index, and current drinker. The likelihood of being uninsured also increased with increasing household size while the inversed trend was seen for household income. A substantial proportion of population in Malaysia did not have private health insurance, and these subgroups have limited preferential choices for provider, facility, and care.