Leisure participation has been proven to be beneficial and has a positive link to successful ageing. This study aims to explore the sociodemographic determinants of leisure participation among the Malaysian elderly. A cross-sectional study was conducted among persons aged 60 years and above, purposively selected from eight health clinics in the state of Selangor. Leisure participation was measured using a validated Leisure Participation Questionnaire specific for Malaysian elderly, consisting of 25 activities, categorized into 4 categories, namely recreational (physical), cognitive, social and productive. Frequency of such participation was measured on a 6-point scale. Its association with sociodemographic variables was examined using inferential and regression analysis. 268 participants were involved in this study (response rate = 100%). The most common daily leisure activities were having conversations while relaxing (78.7%), watching television (74.6%) and reading (63.4%). The least frequently done leisure activities were from the recreational and cognitive categories. The activities were weakly correlated to each other, reflecting the lack of diversity of leisure activities among respondents. Education was the main predictor for leisure participation among elderly, with higher educational level is associated with high RAS (B = 1.020, P < 0.05), CAS (B = 1.580, P < 0.05) and SAS (B = 1.276, P < 0.05). Education level, marital status and locality were important determinants of leisure participation among elderly, with education being the main predictor. Further studies exploring the effective method of educating the ageing society are recommended.
With the increasing prevalence of childhood obesity, the metabolic syndrome has been studied among children in many countries but not in Malaysia. Hence, this study aimed to compare metabolic risk factors between overweight/obese and normal weight children and to determine the influence of gender and ethnicity on the metabolic syndrome among school children aged 9-12 years in Kuala Lumpur and its metropolitan suburbs.
This study deals with the overcapacity problem of water treatment plants in Korea, and mainly discusses status, causes, and engineering options. To this end, we first statistically analyze the recent trend of demand, revealing that the demands of small- and mid-size systems are still increasing while that of large-size systems is now decreasing. Since the existing approach to plan capacity implicitly assumes that demand will increase at a regular rate, we estimate excess capacities and system utilizations of large-size systems. From these results it is found that the large-size systems are suffering from serious overcapacity, thus necessitating that engineers make very difficult decisions given that systems are still expanding the capacities of plants due to a lack of awareness of the current demand trend. For other systems where there is a better understanding of the transition of demand, planners have ceased to expand plants or have closed down relatively old plants in efforts to reduce O&M costs. To address this problem, quick recognition of the transition of demand is being highlighted by the concepts of integrated resources management and cybernetics. Therefore, we examined how quickly the new trend of the Seoul case could be precisely recognized and appropriately addressed. Using the Bayesian parameter estimation method, we found that a new trend can be recognized six years after the transition of demand.
The objective of this study is to share cost analysis methodology and to obtain cost estimates for posterior restorations in public sector dental clinics. Two urban and 2 rural dental clinics in Selangor state were selected. Only cases of 1 posterior restoration per visit by dental officers were included over 6 months. One capsulated amalgam type, 1 capsulated tooth-colored, and 1 non-capsulated tooth-colored material were selected. A clinical pathway form was formulated to collect data per patient. Annual capital and recurrent expenditures were collected per clinic. The mean cost of an amalgam restoration was RM 30.96 (sdRM 7.86); and tooth-colored restorations ranged from RM 33.00 (sdRM 8.43) to RM 41.10 (sdRM 10.61). Wherein 1 USD = RM 2.8. Restoration costs were 35% to 55% higher in clinics in rural areas than in urban areas. The findings demonstrate economy of scale for clinic operation and restoration costs with higher patient load. Costs per restoration were higher in rural than in urban dental clinics. More studies are recommended to address the dearth of dental costs data in Malaysia.
Matched MeSH terms: Urban Population/statistics & numerical data
An in-house prepared M. furfur antigen was used to carry out a seroprevalence study in an urban population in Malaysia by indirect immunofluorescence assay. Of the 800 serum samples from all ages screened, 738 samples were positive for M. furfur specific IgG, giving an overall seropositive rate of 92.3%. There was no significant difference in the seropositive rates among the different gender group and races. However, there was a statistical significant difference in the seropositive rate among different age groups with a lower rate (73%) for the age group 5 years old and below, which increased rapidly to 99% for the 16 to 20 years old age group but declined slightly for the oldest age group. The degree of seropositivity, which semi-quantitatively reflect the anti-M. furfur specific IgG titre, did not show any significant difference among the gender and racial groups. On the other hand, there was a significant difference in the degree of seropositivity among the various age groups, with the 16 to 20 years old age group having the highest antibody titre and the extreme of age groups having the lower antibody titre.
Long-term measurements (2004-2011) of PM10 (particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter <10 μm) and trace gases (carbon monoxide [CO], ozone [O₃], nitrogen oxide [NO], oxides of nitrogen [NO(x)], nitrogen dioxide [NO₂], sulfur dioxide [SO₂], methane [CH₄], nonmethane hydrocarbon [NMHC]) have been conducted to study the effect of physicochemical factors on the PM10 concentration. In addition, this study includes source apportionment of PM10 in Kuala Lumpur urban environment. An advanced principal component analysis (PCA) technique coupled with absolute principal component scores (APCS) and multiple linear regression (MLR) has been applied. The average annual concentration of PM10 for 8 yr is 51.3 ± 25.8 μg m⁻³, which exceeds the Recommended Malaysian Air Quality Guideline (RMAQG) and international guideline values. Detail analysis shows the dependency of PM10 on the linear changes of the motor vehicles in use and the amount of biomass burning, particularly from Sumatra, Indonesia, during southwesterly monsoon. The main sources of PM10 identified by PCA-APCS-MLR are traffic combustion (28%), ozone coupled with meteorological factors (20%), and wind-blown particles (1%). However, the apportionment procedure left 28.0 μg m⁻³, that is, 51% of PM10 undetermined.
A survey conducted to assess the extent which the urban poor in rapidly expanding Kuala Lumpur utilize maternal and child health services available to them. The sample consisted of 1,380 households with children below 6 years and yielded 1,233 children below 6 years of age. 74% of the children had been delivered in government hospitals and 86% of the pregnancies had antenatal care in governmental establishments. 89.2% had BCG immunization before they were 1 year old but 13.3% had not received DPT by that age. Immunization was mainly done in government clinics. The overall immunization coverage for the whole of Kuala Lumpur is expected to be higher than these figures limited to the urban poor. Health planners should increase health facilities in the city to accommodate the expanding population. There is a need to continually campaign for immunization to improve coverage among the urban poor.
"This paper examines how and to what extent the three demographic components of urban change, urban reclassification, natural increase and net migration, operated in Malaysia between 1980 and 1991.... Since there is a spatial dimension to urban demographic changes, another emphasis of the paper is to differentiate the areal patterns of such changes. The analysis is conducted at both the national level and sub-national levels." Data are from the Malaysian Department of Statistics. The author finds that "the important role of natural increase in urban population change is remarkable considering that a rapid fertility transition had been unfolding in Malaysia up to the mid-1970s."
The focus of this study is on urbanization in Malaysia. "This paper is divided into three parts. The first part examines the trend of uneven urban development in West Malaysia. The second part discusses the change [in] ethnic composition of urban population between 1970 and 1980 intercensal period. The third part analyses the impact of the urbanization process on the Malays in the context of housing problems of the lower income groups." (SUMMARY IN THA)
"This paper examines recent trends in urbanization in four selected ASEAN countries--Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand--giving particular attention to the scale and pace of urbanization, the unique features of urban communities, and the health changes and adjustments that accompany urban development in these countries."
"This article examines some of the links between the phenomena of urban migration and squatter settlements in the Third World city. This will be done by demonstrating that both are outcomes of fundamental social and political forces that have operated on these societies. Migration and squatting are placed in a context of the historical processes that led to the uneven development of Malaysia. The article offers some explanation for the origin of the inequalities observed in spatial structures--in this case urban housing--by focusing on one of the contributory factors, namely migration."
This study compares levels of geohelminth infection in children living in rural estates and urban slum areas of Malaysia. The statistical characteristics of geohelminth infection in 1499 children from birth up to 15 years of age, living in rural estates, were analysed according to age, sex and ethnic origin and compared with the same statistics for 1574 slum-dwelling children of similar age groups and ethnic origins. The prevalence and intensity of ascariasis and trichuriasis were significantly higher among children from the urban slums. Slum-dwelling ethnic Indians and Malays had higher levels of infection with Ascaris lumbricoides and Trichuris trichiura than their rural counterparts, but the infection status of the ethnic Chinese in the 2 areas was similar. Hookworm infection was similar in both areas, indicating that hookworm infection is neither necessarily nor solely a rural disease. These results suggest that urban slum children are at greater risk of ascariasis and trichuriasis than their rural counterparts.
"Data from the Malaysian Family Life Survey are used to examine the sensitivity of urban/rural income differentials to the definition and measurement of income. Measured income differentials vary with the extent to which nonmarket activities are included in the scope of income, how the distribution of income is summarized, and whether one adjusts for differences in hours of work, household size and composition, ethnic composition, and other sociodemographic characteristics. For example, depending on the measure chosen, estimates of the amount by which urban income exceeds rural income in Malaysia range from 9 percent to 141 percent."