METHODS: Two separate studies were conducted among adult community-dwelling Singapore residents of Chinese, Malay or Indian ethnicity where participants completed self-administered questionnaires. In the first study, secondary data analysis was conducted using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to shorten the PMH instrument. In the second study, the newly developed short PMH instrument and other scales were administered to 201 residents to establish its factor structure, validity and reliability.
RESULTS: A 20-item short PMH instrument fulfilling a higher-order six-factor structure was developed following secondary analysis. The mean age of the participants in the second study was 41 years and about 53% were women. One item with poor factor loading was further removed to generate a 19-item version of the PMH instrument. CFA demonstrated a first-order six-factor model of the short PMH instrument. The PMH-19 instrument and its subscales fulfilled criterion validity hypotheses. Internal consistency and test-retest reliability of the PMH-19 instrument were high (Cronbach's α coefficient = 0.87; intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.93, respectively).
CONCLUSIONS: The 19-item PMH instrument is multidimensional, valid and reliable, and most importantly, with its reduced administration time, the short PMH instrument can be used to measure and evaluate PMH in Asian communities.
DATA SOURCE: The China National Knowledge Infrastructure and MEDLINE databases were searched. The systematic review with meta-analysis included genetic studies which assessed the association between neonatal hyperbilirubinemia and 388 G>A, 521 T>C, and 463 C>A variants of SLCO1B1 between January of 1980 and December of 2012. Data selection and extraction were performed independently by two reviewers.
SUMMARY OF THE FINDINGS: Ten articles were included in the study. The results revealed that SLCO1B1 388 G>A is associated with an increased risk of neonatal hyperbilirubinemia (OR, 1.39; 95% CI, 1.07-1.82) in Chinese neonates, but not in white, Thai, Latin American, or Malaysian neonates. The SLCO1B1 521 T>C mutation showed a low risk of neonatal hyperbilirubinemia in Chinese neonates, while no significant associations were found in Brazilian, white, Asian, Thai, and Malaysian neonates. There were no significant differences in SLCO1B1 463 C>A between the hyperbilirubinemia and the control group.
CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated that the 388 G>A mutation of the SLCO1B1 gene is a risk factor for developing neonatal hyperbilirubinemia in Chinese neonates, but not in white, Thai, Brazilian, or Malaysian populations; the SLCO1B1 521 T>C mutation provides protection for neonatal hyperbilirubinemia in Chinese neonates, but not in white, Thai, Brazilian, or Malaysian populations.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: Eight hundred and twenty-eight subjects (404 PD patients, and 424 age and gender-matched control subjects without neurological disorders) were recruited. Genotyping was done by Taqman® allelic discrimination assay on an Applied Biosystems 7500 Fast Real-Time PCR machine.
RESULTS: The heterozygous A419V genotype was found in only 1 patient with PD, compared to 3 in the control group (0.4% vs 1.3%), giving an odds ratio of 0.35 (95% confidence interval (CI), 0.01 to 3.79; P = 0.624).
CONCLUSION: A419V is not an important LRRK2 risk variant in our Asian cohort of patients with PD. Our data are further supported by a literature review which showed that 4 out of 6 published studies reported a negative association of this variant in PD.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: A descriptive study involved 58 Malays and 15 Chinese women newly diagnosed with breast cancer prior to treatment. Quality of life was measured using the Malay version of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30) and its breast-specific module (QLQ-BR23). Socio-demographic and clinical data were also collected. All the data were analyzed using SPSS version 20.0.
RESULTS: Most of the women were married with at least a secondary education and were in late stages of breast cancer. The Malay women had lower incomes (p=0.046) and more children (p=0.001) when compared to the Chinese women. Generally, both the Malay and Chinese women had good functioning quality-of-life scores [mean score range: 60.3-84.8 (Malays); 65.0-91.1 (Chinese)] and global quality of life [mean score 60.3, SD 22.2 (Malays); mean score 65.0, SD 26.6 (Chinese)]. The Malay women experienced more symptoms such as nausea and vomiting (p=0.002), dyspnoea (p=0.004), constipation (p<0.001) and breast-specific symptoms (p=0.041) when compared to the Chinese.
CONCLUSIONS: Quality of life was satisfactory in both Malays and Chinese women newly diagnosed with breast cancer in Kelantan. However, Malay women had a lower quality of life due to high general as well as breast-specific symptoms. This study finding underlined the importance of measuring quality of life in the newly diagnosed breast cancer patient, as it will provide a broader picture on how a cancer diagnosis impacts multi-ethnic patients. Once health care professionals understand this, they might then be able to determine how to best support and improve the quality of life of these women during the difficult times of their disease and on-going cancer treatments.
MATERIAL AND METHODS: The Singapore Mental Health Study (SMHS) is a cross-sectional epidemiological study that was conducted between December 2009 and December 2010. Information on smoking status was assessed using the Composite International Diagnostic Interview version 3.0 (CIDI 3.0) and the Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence measured nicotine dependence. Socio-demographic information was also collected.
RESULTS: In total, 6616 respondents participated in the SMHS giving a response rate of 75.9%. We found that 16% of the population were current smokers and 4.5% had nicotine dependence. Current smokers were more likely to be younger (18 to 34 years old), males, Malay and have lower education, whilst males had a 4.6 times higher risk of nicotine dependence to that of females. The prevalence of nicotine dependence was also higher in those with alcohol abuse and those experiencing chronic pain.
CONCLUSION: The results from this study highlight the important differences in the prevalence of smoking and nicotine dependence among different age groups, gender and ethnicity in Singapore and are important for developing future health policies and targeted preventive strategies.
METHODS: The Singapore Prostate Cancer Study is a hospital-based case-control study of 240 prostate cancer incident cases and 268 controls conducted in Singapore between April 2007 and May 2009. Detailed information on outdoor activities in the sun, skin colour, sun sensitivity and other possible risk factors were collected in personal interviews. Cases were further classified by Gleason scores and TNM staging. Odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated using unconditional logistic regression analysis, adjusted for age, ethnicity, education, family history of any cancers, BMI and skin colour.
RESULTS: We found that prostate cancer risk was increased in subjects with black/dark-brown eyes (OR 5.88, 95%CI 3.17-10.9), darker skin colour e.g. tan/dark brown/black (OR 7.62, 95%CI 3.41-17.0), frequent sunburn in lifetime (OR 4.30, 95%CI 1.7-11.2) and increased general sun exposure in adulthood per week (OR 2.03, 95%CI 1.09-3.81). The increased risk was consistent for high grade tumours and advanced stage prostate cancers.
CONCLUSION: The findings from this study suggest that excessive sun exposure is a risk factor for prostate cancer in Asians.