METHODS: The mixed methods pilot feasibility study was carried out between April and September 2021, involving 16 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and 5 experts. The usability score was rated according to the System Usability Scale (SUS).
RESULTS: The average SUS score by the experts was 88. The patients gave a higher score of 85 for SUS, with 58 as the lowest. The average SUS score was 72. The findings indicate that the webpage is acceptable, good, and highly usable for users.
CONCLUSION: The outcomes of this study signify the relationship between effective health applications and how their design might hamper their effectiveness in changing patients' behavior.
Methods: This quasi-experimental study will assess community member and community health volunteer knowledge, attitudes, and practices on noncommunicable disease prevention, risk factors, and health-seeking behavior in three geographical areas of Kuala Lumpur, each representing a different ethnicity (Malay, Indian, and Chinese). Assessment will take place before and after a 9-month intervention period, comparing intervention areas with matched control geographies. We plan to engage 2880 community members and 45 community health volunteers across the six geographic areas. A digital health needs assessment will inform modification of digital health tools to support project aims. Intervention co-creation will use a discrete choice experiment to identify community preferences among evidence-based intervention options, building from data collected on community knowledge, attitudes, and practices. Community health volunteers will work with local businesses and other stakeholders to effect change in obesogenic environments and NCD risk. The study has been approved by the Malaysian Ministry of Health Medical Research Ethical Committee.
Discussion: The Better Health Programme Malaysia anticipates a bottom-up approach that relies on community health volunteers collaborating with local businesses to implement activities that address obesogenic environments and improve community knowledge, attitudes, and practices related to NCD risk. The planned co-creation process will determine which interventions will be most locally relevant, feasible, and needed. The effort aims to empower community members and community health volunteers to drive change that improves their own health and wellbeing. The learnings can be useful nationally and sub-nationally in Malaysia, as well as across similar settings that are working with community stakeholders to reduce noncommunicable disease risk.
Trial registration: National Medical Research Register, Malaysia; NMRR-20-1004-54787 (IIR); July 7, 2020.
OBJECTIVES: This paper aims to identify requirements in developing a breast examination awareness mobile app based on the component of the Health Belief Model (HBM) for integration in health promotion strategy.
METHODS: A qualitative approach using semi-structured in-depth interview was utilized in this study. A purposive sampling method was conducted among public women attending hospital services, software and content experts in a tertiary teaching hospital in the East coast of Peninsular Malaysia. These interviews were recorded, transcribed and organized using NVIVO 11. The main themes were identified through thematic analysis of the interview transcripts. Results: A total of 37 participants recruited in this study. The themes that emerged from the analysis are vulnerability, forecasting, reactive, influence, outcome and obstacles. The sub-themes findings supported the HBM's component in terms of the requirement for are an infographic risk factor, video (symptoms, self-examination), info (metastasis, survival, screening, triple assessment, treatment, myth and facts, benefit of early treatment, support groups), features (screening reminder, sharing button, prompt) and mobile app's design.
CONCLUSION: The research findings could provide a guide for future app development from public women, content and software experts. The information will be used to develop a breast examination awareness mobile app integrated with health theories.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD). A total of 303 students participated. Data was collected from January to April 2016. Self-designed questionnaires comprised questions pertaining to current weight, self-reported height data, information on eating habits, exercise and knowledge of the food pyramid. The collected data were used to compare and contrast eating habits and lifestyle practices among overweight/obese students with those of non-overweight/obese students.
Results: The prevalence of overweight/obesity was 28.8% (95% CI: 24.0%, 34.0%). The majority ate regular daily meals, but more than half skipped breakfast. Frequent snacking, fried food consumption at least three times per week and low intake of daily fruits and vegetables were common. The frequency of visits to fast food restaurants was significantly higher in the overweight/obese. 25.4% of the students exercised at least three times per week. Almost all students are aware of balanced nutrition and the food pyramid.
Conclusions: Most university students had poor eating habits, although the majority had good nutrition knowledge. By way of recommendation, the university is encouraged to provide a multi-disciplinary team specialising in health promotion that includes nutrition and physical activity programmes to increase the awareness among the university students.
DESIGN: Using interviewer-administered questionnaires, we assessed changes in food consumption during pregnancy (26-28 weeks' gestation) and the postpartum period (3 weeks after delivery) as compared with the usual pre-pregnancy diet.
SETTING: Singapore.
SUBJECTS: Pregnant women (n 1027) of Chinese, Malay and Indian ethnicity (mean age 30·4 (SD 5·2) years) who participated in the Growing Up in Singapore Towards healthy Outcomes (GUSTO) study.
RESULTS: During pregnancy, participants tended to increase their consumption of milk, fruit and vegetables and decrease their consumption of tea, coffee, soft drinks and seafood (all P < 0·001). Most participants reported adherence to traditional restrictions ('confinement') during the early postpartum period (Chinese: 94·8 %, Malay: 91·6 %, Indian: 79·6 %). During the postpartum period, participants tended to increase their consumption of fish and milk-based drinks and decrease their consumption of noodles, seafood, and chocolates and sweets (all P < 0·001). Ethnic differences in food consumption were pronounced during the postpartum period. For example, most Chinese participants (87·2 %) increased their ginger consumption during the postpartum period as compared with smaller percentages of Malays (31·8 %) and Indians (40·8 %; P for ethnic difference <0·001). Similar ethnic differences were observed for cooking wine/alcohol, herbs and spices, and herbal tea consumption.
CONCLUSIONS: Marked changes in food consumption that reflect both modern dietary recommendations and the persistence of traditional beliefs were observed in Singaporean women during pregnancy and the postpartum period. Traditional beliefs should be considered in interventions to improve dietary intakes during these periods.
METHODS: The review was conducted according to a predefined protocol. Medline, EMBASE, CINAHL, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, and Google Scholar were searched in September 2017, and data extraction and rating of methodologic study quality (according to Joanna Briggs Institute rating procedures) were performed independently by reviewers.
RESULTS: Twenty-two studies (reported across 24 papers) met the inclusion criteria. Most studies (n = 21) were conducted in high or upper-middle income countries; targeted breast (n = 11), cervical (n = 7), colorectal (n = 3), or oral (n = 2) cancer; and used small media either alone (n = 15) or in combination with mass media and other components (n = 5). Studies regarding cancer screening uptake were of medium to high quality and mainly reported positive outcomes for cervical cancer and mixed results for breast and colorectal cancer. The methodologic strength of research that investigated change in cancer-related knowledge and the cost effectiveness of interventions, respectively, were weak and inconclusive.
CONCLUSION: Evidence indicated that small media campaigns seemed to be effective in terms of increasing screening uptake in Asia, in particular cervical cancer screening. Because of the limited number of studies in Asia, it was not possible to be certain about the effectiveness of mass media in improving screening uptake and the effectiveness of campaigns in improving cancer-related knowledge.
METHODS: This controlled community trial involved 210 women from the districts of Alor Setar and Sungai Petani. Simple random sampling was applied to select 105 women from each district. Self-administered questionnaires were used to obtain information about the variables of interest. Health education intervention program included educational talk, demo video, experience sharing, pamphlet distribution, and text message reminders. Evaluation of outcomes was performed twice. The text message reminders acted as the cues to action that were sent between the two evaluation times at one-month interval. Women in the control group received educational talk alone. In the control group, evaluation of outcomes was done only once, which was one month after the educational talk.
RESULTS: Knowledge on cervical cancer and Pap smear, and attitude towards Pap smear among women in both intervention and control group improved significantly at Evaluation stage 1. However, no further improvements were observed in the intervention group at Evaluation stage 2. The uptake of Pap smear in the intervention group increased significantly from 48.0% at Baseline to 68.0% at Evaluation stage 1 (P<0.001), and from 68.0% to 79.0% at Evaluation stage 2 (P<0.001). A significant increase in Pap smear uptake was also seen in the control group from 63.0% at Baseline to 76.0% at Evaluation stage 1 (P=0.003).
CONCLUSIONS: Educational talk alone was effective in improving knowledge on cervical cancer and Pap smear, attitude towards the test, and the actual uptake of the test. However, text reminders were more effective than having an educational talk alone in increasing uptake of Pap smear test among participants.
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