METHODS AND ANALYSIS: This is an observational study that will use anonymised online surveys to estimate the prevalence of burnout symptoms at two time points: during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and in 2022 (assumed to be after the pandemic). Gastroenterologists from Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines and Brunei will be invited to participate in the online survey through their national gastroenterology and endoscopy societies. Burnout will be assessed using the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services Survey tool. Supplementary questions will collect demographic and qualitative data. Associations between demographic characteristics and burnout will be tested by multiple regression.
RESULTS: The prevalence of burnout symptoms in gastroenterology during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the baseline prevalence after COVID-19, will be established in the above-mentioned countries. Work-related stressors commonly associated with burnout will be identified, allowing the introduction of preventative measures to reduce burnout in the future.
ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethical approval was granted by the Singhealth Centralised Institutional Review Board (2020/2709). Results will be submitted for publication.
METHODS: Twenty-five young and healthy university students performed a triceps push-down exercise at 45% one repetition maximum (1RM) with and without CS until task failure, and the rate of fatigue (ROF), endurance time (ET) and number of repetitions (NR) for both exercises were analyzed. In addition, the first and last six repetitions of each exercise were considered non-fatiguing (NF) and fatiguing (Fa), respectively, and the root mean square (RMS), mean power frequency (MPF) and median frequency (MDF) for each exercise repetition were evaluated.
RESULTS: The lateral and long head showed significant differences (P<0.05) in the ROF between the two exercises, and all the heads showed significant (P<0.05) differences in the RMS between the two exercises under NF conditions. Only the long head showed a significant difference (P<0.05) in the MPF and MDF between the two exercises. CS increases the ET (24.74%) and NR (27%) of the exercise. The three heads showed significant differences (P<0.05) in the RMS, MPF and MDF under all exercise conditions.
CONCLUSION: A lower ROF was obtained with CS. In addition, the RMS was found to be better approximator of CS, whereas MPF and MDF were more resistant to the effect of CS. The results showed that the three heads worked independently under all conditions, and the non-synergist and synergist head pairs showed similar behavior under Fa conditions. The findings from this study provide additional insights regarding the functioning of each TB head.
METHODS: Twenty-eight male Wistar rats were randomly assigned to four groups of seven rats. The two control groups were administered vitamin-free palm oil (vehicle) and the two treatment groups were given omeprazole (20 mg/kg) or tocotrienol (60 mg/kg) by oral gavage. After 28 d of treatment, rats from one control group and both treated groups were subjected to WIRS one time for 3.5 h. Gastric lesions were measured and gastric tissues were obtained to measure vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), epidermal growth factor (EGF), basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), and transforming growth factor-alpha (TGF-α) mRNA expression.
RESULTS: Rats exposed to WIRS for 3.5 h demonstrated the presence of considerable ulcers in the form of gastric erosion. The lesion index in the stressed control (S) group was increased (P < 0.001) compared to the tocotrienol treated and omeprazole treated groups. Stress led to a decrease in gastric VEGF (P < 0.001), bFGF (P < 0.001) and TGF-α (P < 0.001) mRNA levels and caused an increase in EGF mRNA (P < 0.001) that was statistically significant compared to the non-stressed control group. Although both treatment agents exerted similar ulcer reducing ability, only treatment with tocotrienol led to increased expression of VEGF (P = 0.008), bFGF (P = 0.001) and TGF-α (P = 0.002) mRNA.
CONCLUSION: Tocotrienol provides gastroprotective effects in WIRS-induced ulcers. Compared to omeprazole, tocotrienol exerts a similar protective effect, albeit through multiple mechanisms of protection, particularly through up-regulation of growth factors that assist in repair of gastric tissue injuries.
OBJECTIVE: The broad objective of this study was to investigate the direct and indirect effects of behavioral factors on the psychological and physiological health of workers.
METHODS: The latest, second generation technique, which is structural equation modeling, is used to identify the relationships between behavioral antecedents and health outcomes. A total of 277 technical workers participated, aged between 20 and 49 and were healthy in all aspects.
RESULTS: The study results showed quantitative demands, emotional demands, work-family conflict, and job insecurity were significantly associated with both psychological (stress) and physiological (Body Mass Index) factors. The social support of colleagues produced mixed findings with direct and indirect paths. Stress also significantly mediates the psychosocial factors and burnout of the workers.
CONCLUSION: The study concluded that workers were physically available, but they experienced distractions as members of social systems, affecting their physiological and psychological health.
OBJECTIVE: To validate the Malay version of the DASS-21 (Malay-DASS-21) among male outpatient clinic attendees in Johor.
METHODS: A validation study with a random sample of 402 male respondents attending the outpatient clinic of a major public outpatient clinic in Johor Bahru and Segamat was carried out from January to March 2016. Construct validity of the Malay-DASS-21 was examined using Exploratory Factor Analysis (KMO = 0.947; Bartlett's test of sphericity is significant, p<0.001) through Principal Component Analysis and orthogonal (varimax) rotation with Kaiser Normalization to confirm the psychometric properties of the Malay-DASS- 21 and the internal consistency reliability using Cronbach's alpha.
RESULTS: Construct validity of the Malay-DASS-21 based on eigenvalues and factor loadings to confirm the three factor structure (depression, anxiety, and stress) was acceptable. The internal consistency reliability of the factor construct was very impressive with Cronbach's alpha values in the range of 0.837 to 0.863.
CONCLUSIONS: The present study showed that the Malay- DASS-21 has acceptable psychometric construct and high internal consistency reliability to measure self-perceived depression, anxiety and stress over the past week in male outpatient clinic attendees in Johor. Further studies are necessary to revalidate the Malay-DASS-21 across different populations and cultures, and using confirmatory factor analyses.