The rapid aging of populations worldwide demands major changes across all aspects of health care for older persons. Geriatric medicine which is that branch of of medicine which is concerned with the clinical, preventive and rehabilitative aspects of care of older persons, has much to offer in relieving the suffering and increasing the disability free years they can enjoy. Recent advances in Geriatric Medicine based on well designed randomised trials and meta-analysis that are clinically significant to the practicing physician are reviewed in this article. KEYWORDS: Recent advances, Geriatric Medicine, Older persons.
This paper attempts to examine the socio-demographic profile of the respondents in Migrant Health studies. It was based on questionnaire survey among 820 respondents from the Klang Valley and the State of Kelantan from 6th January 1998 to 14th January 1999. Majority of the respondents (47.9%) were from Bangladesh, followed by Indonesia (14.8%), Thailand (13.7%), Myanmar (20.4%), Pakistan (9.9%) and Others (1.3%). The male to female ratio is 7:1. He age of respondents ranged from 18 to 69 years with a mean of 30.5 years. More than 70% of them are adults (25-44 years). Females were older than males (mean age of 33.8 years and 30.5 years respectively). Majority of the respondents were married (females 75.8% and males 52.6%), 93.7 were Muslims. About 87.4% of them had some formal education. Majority of the foreign workers were employed as factory workers (35.7%), followed by construction workers (18.3%), agricultural workers (33.6%), service workers (13.3%) and self-employed (11%). Nevertheless, the profile of these responding do not conform to the national profile.
Cleft palate has been recorded for many cenhuies. Until the 16th century attempts at closure were by covering or filling the clefts using artificial materials. By the 18th century sutures were used to close the palate after cauterization. By the 19th century lateral relaxing incisions were used to close the cleft at mid line. In 1861 Von Langenbeck (9,22) introduced his technique for dosing the palate. Veau(9) recommended his technique to elongate the palate and to narrow the velopharyngeal space. Many specialties are involved in rectifying this problem. They comprise maxillofacial, orthodontic. ENT surgeons, as well as speech therapists.(9) However, none of these methods succeeded to provide a satisfactory solution for the problem of complete deft palate. In this study, 618 cases of cleft palate of varying degrees were operated during the period from January 1992 to July 2001. From these 618 cases, 48 cases (7.07%) had complete cleft lip and palate. Only 18 cases (37.5%) had bilateral complete cleft lip and palate, and 30 cases (62.5%), had unilateral complete deft lip and palate. The results of the corrective surgical procedures were very promising. In this series of 618 cases only six cases developed residual fistula. The used technique was simple and similar to the Von Langenbeck technique but differs in some steps. The timing of the surgical intervention was a very important factor which influenced the outcome of the closure. KEYWORDS; New technique and tinling for treating complete cleft palate.
Many nation states, including Malaysia are undergoing development and modernization brings tremendous achievements related to social and economic well-being, on the other hand, it also brings along with it the various untoward effects on the nation. One of the main factors which have an impact on modernization, mass migration of rural populations to the urban areas, has been on going in Malaysia since the seventies. In the early nineties, the robust economic development in Malaysia necessitated the import of foreign labour from the neighbouring countries in order to provide cheap labour in the labour intensive industries. This demographic changes, internal and foreign migration, parallels the economic progress of the host countries. According to the latest report from the Immigration Department, there are more than 1.2 million registered foreign workers (up to January 1998) in Malaysia. This figure may exceed 2 million if we take into consideration the illegal immigrants and this is a big proportion (about 10%) of foreign workers in which has Malaysia’s population of approximately 20 million. The presence of such a big number of foreign workers during less than a decade is not merely an immigration issue, but it is major concern for the nation especially with respect to health care, housing and education. As the immigrant community is highly dynamic, the emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases are a great concern for Malaysia especially in formulating health policies for Malaysia currently and in the future.
The immigration of foreign workers has important public health implications because it is a potential route for disease transmission. New diseases may be introduced into the country and diseases which have been eradicated may re-emerge among the local population. The emergence of new diseases and re-emergence of previously eradicated diseases will have grave public health implications because the local population has no or decreased immunity against these diseases. The mobility of foreign workers withing the country sometimes makes it difficult for the health authorities to track the source of infection. Foreign workers who are carriers of diseases such as Hepatitis B and HIV (which have a window period) will test as negative and hence will not be detected during the pre-employment medical examination. Thus it is essential that these foreign workers undergo a full medical examination and screening withing 3 to 6 months after entry into Malaysia and annually throughout their employment period in Malaysia. The current physical examination and screening procedure does not guarantee that these workers are totally disease-free. Therefore, we need to re-look at the current examination content, criteria and procedures to rectify any deficiencies in the current system. The authorities need to devise a mechanism to ensure that foreign workers or their employers purchase a medical insurance so that the public sector health facilities and personnel are not overloaded and overworked. The authorities have already in place a mechanism to prevent medically UNFIT foreign workers from entering this country. However, it is the large number of undocumented and illegal foreign workers that pose a bigger threat to the wellbeing of the nation's health. As long as employers are willing to take a risk by employing illegal foreign workers, all the efforts that the government has undertaken to safeguard the nation's health will be rendered futile.
Prevalens gangguan kognitif ringan (MCI) di Malaysia mencecah 68% pada tahun 2016. Pelbagai kaedah dijalankan bagi memastikan kelestarian tahap kesihatan warga tua termasuk melalui nutrisi, gaya hidup dan persekitaran. Pengehadan kalori dibuktikan mampu untuk menurunkan kadar mortaliti dan morbiditi warga tua serta memelihara tahap kesihatan warga tua supaya dapat membantu dalam meningkatkan kualiti hidup golongan tersebut. Pengehadan kalori juga merupakan salah satu kaedah yang lebih mudah dan berkesan dalam membantu meningkatkan ingatan dan memelihara kesihatan golongan tersebut. Ia juga membantu mengurangkan kadar inflamasi dan mencantas tindakan radikal bebas yang hadir di dalam sistem tubuh akibat daripada proses penuaan dan faktor persekitaran. Keadaan ini menyediakan tubuh badan yang lebih rentan terhadap kerosakan DNA dan serangan toksin daripada penyakit kronik, pemakanan dan persekitaran. Oleh itu, kajian ini memberikan konsep yang lebih jelas terhadap implikasi pengehadan kalori dalam memelihara fungsi kognitif.
Kajian ini merupakan aplikasi pendekatan kalut ke atas peramalan siri masa bahan pencemar udara ozon di stesen asas Malaysia yang terletak di Jerantut, Pahang. Sebelum model peramalan dibina, siri masa diuji terlebih dahulu sama ada bersifat kalut atau tidak. Melalui plot ruang fasa dan kaedah Cao, siri masa bahan pencemar ozon didapati bersifat kalut bermatra rendah. Oleh itu, model peramalan melalui kaedah penghampiran linear setempat dibina. Sebagai inovasi, model ini ditambah baik. Sebagai perbandingan, model peramalan regresi linear turut dibina. Melalui pengiraan purata ralat mutlak, ralat punca purata kuasa dua dan pekali korelasi, keputusan menunjukkan bahawa model baharu penambahbaikan penghampiran linear setempat adalah lebih baik berbanding model-model yang lain. Maka, penambahbaikan yang dilakukan adalah berbaloi. Dengan itu, pendekatan kalut adalah pendekatan alternatif yang sesuai digunakan bagi membangunkan model peramalan siri masa bahan pencemar ozon. Penemuan model baharu dalam kajian ini diharap dapat membantu memudahkan usaha pihak-pihak berkepentingan dalam menguruskan isu pencemaran udara, khususnya ozon.
Kajian anatomi rizom dan stip telah dijalankan ke atas empat spesies Pleocnemia yang terdapat di Semenanjung Malaysia
iaitu P. irregularis, P. conjugata, P. hemiteliiformis dan P. olivacea untuk mengkaji variasi ciri yang terdapat pada rizom
dan stip ini. Kajian ini melibatkan keratan rentas stip dan rizom dengan menggunakan mikrotom gelongsor. Ciri anatomi
stip seperti bentuk luaran, corak kehadiran sel sklerenkima di bawah epidermis, jenis dan bentuk stel dan ciri anatomi
rizom seperti kehadiran sel rembes tanin dan kehadiran serta jenis trikom pada sesetengah spesies boleh digunakan untuk
pengecaman spesies. Ciri sepunya bagi spesies Pleocnemia yang dikaji ialah kehadiran sel sklerenkima mengelilingi stel
dan di bawah lapisan sel epidermis, stel jenis kompleks serta stel bagi kesemua spesies kajian berbentuk protostel primitif
(bulat). Antara ciri diagnosis yang ditemui dalam kajian ini ialah bentuk luaran stip, bilangan lapisan skelerenkima
di bawah epidermis, kehadiran sel rembes tanin bagi spesies P. irregularis dan P. hemiteliiformis serta kehadiran jenis
trikom yang berbeza dalam keempat-empat spesies. Ciri diagnosis ini adalah ciri yang baik untuk pengecaman spesies
kajian. Keputusan kajian ini menunjukkan bahawa ciri anatomi stip dan rizom mempunyai nilai taksonomi dalam genus
Pleocnemia dan boleh digunakan sebagai data sokongan untuk pengecaman dan pembezaan spesies.
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