Objective: To develop and suggest a body of information which may be useful in a public health approach to suicide.
Conclusion: It is suggested that the following be available to the general public: i) suicide is a fact of life which should be minimised, ii) suicide has many different triggers, iii) most people who take their lives are able to make decisions, and iv) increased public discussion and understanding of suicide is desirable. Five pieces of information that may be useful to those contemplating suicide include: i) don't murder the part of you that wants to live, ii) suicide actions may leave you alive but disabled, iii) suicide hurts other people, iv) suicidal impulses do pass if you hold on, and v) suicide is a waste.
DESIGN: Qualitative content analysis on all textbooks used in Malaysian public schools in the year 2019 were conducted to identify the content and structure of information delivery through 11 years of formal education. Information related to hearing health was extracted and categorised according to the themes that emerged. Further analysis was done to characterise the usefulness of the information in promoting active hearing care based on the type of information delivered.
STUDY SAMPLE: A total of 148 elementary and secondary school textbooks were reviewed.
RESULTS: Fourteen textbooks (4 elementary and 10 secondary levels) were found to have relevant hearing health information covering topics of sound, ear and hearing, noise and hearing loss. The contents were mostly theoretical and lacked information about noise-induced hearing loss and proper hearing care.
CONCLUSION: Minimal hearing health information was present in the Malaysian school curriculum. The content was inadequate for teaching students about hearing loss prevention. Areas of improvement and research are recommended to improve school-based hearing health education in Malaysia.
METHODOLOGY: The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-analysis (PRISMA) checklist was used to perform this review. Health-related databases including PubMed, Ovid, and Google Scholar were searched for relevant studies. A consolidated framework with five domains was developed after undertaking a six-phase reflective thematic assessment of the data.
RESULTS: Thirteen studies were identified, spanning eight low-and middle-income countries of the Indo-Pacific region including Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam. The studies in this review covered the period from 2002 to 2021. A broad range of study designs and objectives were revealed across these 13 studies. An array of communities such as the local government, project-related health staff, local health services staff, community leaders, local communities/residences/general public, heads of households, community health volunteers, school teachers, and schoolchildren participated in these dengue related studies. The five Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) domains of 'intervention characteristics', 'inner setting', 'outer setting',' individual characteristics', and 'program implementations' were used to identify and describe barriers and facilitators.
CONCLUSIONS: The findings indicate a range of barriers and facilitators to community engagement in dengue control in the selected LMIC in the Indo-Pacific countries. Future health services research on dengue control approaches should be carefully planned, methodologically constructed, aligned with community engagement principles, and involve considerable community participation at all stages of the research.