The preliminary investigation was carried out to assess the severity of malocclusion between two centres, the dental schools in Leeds, United Kingdom and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. A total of 99 study models were analysed using the Index ofOrthodontic Treatment Need (lOIN). Thestudy models were ofpatients aged 8to 15years, equally distributed between male and female patients taken from the undergraduate and staff clinics. Forty nine and fifty study models were analysed at the Leeds Dental School and FacultyofDentistry,University ofMalaya,respectively.Fromthisobservation, it appeared that the sample of patients treated at the Faculty of Dentistry, Kuala Lumpur presented approximately 25%higher with casesin the severe end of the malocclusion based on the dental health component and almost 70%more with the aesthetic component. Factors contributing to this finding are discussed.
A study was conducted from March to June 1991 to determine the prevalence of obesity among primary school children in the State of Selangor. One School Health Team in each of the 9 Districts of Selangor participated in the collection of data, the whole project being coordinated by the Selangor State Health Department. A total of 28 rural and 24 urban schools were selected for the study, involving a total of 2,688 pupils in Standard 1 and Standard 6. The prevalence of obesity, using >120% of the reference weight-for-height as the criteria, varied considerably in the different districts, with an overall prevalence of 7.8% in the State. The proportion of boys affected (66.7%) was twice that among girls (33.3%). The prevalence of obesity of 9.8% in the urban schools was significantly higher than the 6.1% found for rural schools (p<0.0001). 151 (11.1%) were from Standard 6 and 59 (4.4%) were from Standard 1 (p<0.0001). It was also found that there was a significantly higher prevalence of obesity amongst primary 6 children (p<0.0001). Whilst the problem may not be as serious as that found in developed countries, the findings of this study should serve as an early warning to health authorities of the seriousness of the problem.
Giardiasis, a gastrointestinal disease caused by Giardia intestinalis is endemic in Malaysia. The prevalence rate has been reported to range from 1.4% to 11.1%. The present study was undertaken between 1992-1994 in three health districts in three states viz. Pahang, Negeri Sembilan and Selangor. Seven thousand five hundred and fifty seven (7557) primary school children between the ages of 6-12 years from the lower socio-economic groups were screened. The prevalence was 0.21%. The study suggests that improved water supply, toilet facilities and sanitation have lowered the prevalence of a waterborne disease in the areas surveyed.
Three primary schools with three different food service managements in Kuala Selangor were selected for this study. Food samples served for five school days were taken and analyzed for calories, protein, fat and carbohydrate. It was observed that most of the food served was rice-based such as nasi lemak, chicken rice, noodles and traditional cakes. The amount of calories and protein per serving ranged from 77-274 kcal and 0.9-3.6 g respectively. Food served under the Supplementary School Feeding Programme contained higher calories than those sold by these school canteens. However, the amounts of protein and calories were still short of the expected amounts recommended by the Ministry of Education, which according to menu should provide at least 10 g protein and 290-390 kcal. The percentage contributions of energy from protein in foods served at school canteens were also lower than the recommended.
Stool examination of 249 early primary schoolchildren at 2 schools in north-eastern peninsular Malaysia revealed that 73 were infected with Ascaris lumbricoides, 103 with Trichuris trichiura, and 18 with hookworms. Infected children were treated with a single dose of 400 mg of albendazole. The school attendance records during a 60 d period before treatment and 2 consecutive 60 d periods after treatment were examined. The absenteeism rate did not improve more among infected children after treatment than it did among the uninfected control children. The correlation between worm intensity and the number of lost school-days was poor. There was no evidence that intestinal helminthiasis caused school absenteeism among this group of children.
6239 children aged 7 to 16 years, attending 22 primary and secondary schools in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, were screened using a self report questionnaire, with their heights and weights measured using a digital electronic SECA beam balance. The selection was done by a two staged stratified random sampling from a total of 226 schools in Kuala Lumpur. The racial distribution was 56.7% Malays, 33.8% Chinese and 8.1% Indians; 3.6% (n:222) of the children were identified as obese and 6% (n:373) identified as overweight. The definitions of obese and overweight were computed using growth charts of the National Centre for Health Statistics (NCHS) from the median of the reference population. There were no significant differences amongst the 3 major ethnic groups in the obese group. The differences were significant in the overweight group with the Indians most overweight, followed by the Chinese and the Malays.
During the Japanese Occupation of Singapore (1942-1945), Singapore was renamed Syonan (or Syonanto). The Japanese Military Administration established The Medical College on 27 April 2603 (1943) and it was known as The Marei Ika Daigaku or Syonan Medical College. It was sited at the Tan Tock Seng Hospital (Hakua Byoin). The Ika Daigaku relocated to the General Hospital, Malacca in February 2604 (1944) where it functioned till the end of the Japanese Occupation in September 1945. About 200 students from Singapore, Malaya, Sumatra and Java attended the Syonan Medical College; the students were taught mainly Japanese language and culture.
During the Japanese Occupation of Singapore and Malaya (1941-1945), Singapore was renamed Syonan (or Syonanto) and Malaya was called Malai (or Marai; Marei). On 27 April 2603 (1943) the Japanese Military Administration established. The Marai Ika Daigaku (Syonan Medical College) at the Tan Tock Seng Hospital (Hakuai Byoin), Syonan. The Medical College shifted to the General Hospital, Malacca in February 2604 (1944) where it functioned till the end of the Japanese Occupation in September 2605 (1945).
This paper assessed the role of public health schools on maternal and child health programmes in the Asia Pacific region. Economic development and its associated effects, particularly in the ASEAN countries, for example, migrant labour, ageing, environmental health, turbulence and social climate, has a tremendous impact on maternal and child health. Based on these current issues, it is evident that public health schools can play a major role in maternal and child health in terms of policy formulation and programme development. Several areas were proposed as to what schools of public health can do, namely, through networking, communication, research and training.
Matched MeSH terms: Schools, Public Health/organization & administration*
Four hundred and forty three teachers from eight ran-domly selected primary schools were enrolled in this study which was aimed at determining the knowledge regarding child abuse and neglect among primary school teachers in Kuala Lumpur. The areas that were examined included characteristics of child abusers and abused children. The results showed that the marital status of the teachers did not influence their level of knowledge and there was no significant difference between novice and senior teachers. The most impor-tant finding here was that knowledge regarding sexual and physical abuse was lacking in the teachers surveyed.
Accidental stab wounds caused by door handles are rare. A case is presented where a boy sustained a stab injury by a door handle with resultant impaction of the door handle into his forearm. The injury was possibly predisposed by the design of the door lock-and-handle complex and precipitated by his activity, both of which could have been avoided by a different design of the door lock and handle complex and perhaps closer supervision while at school.
School children from 3 primary and 2 secondary schools in Sarawak were examined for the presence of gastrointestinal helminths. One primary school and 1 secondary school were located in a town (Serian), the other primary and secondary schools were in the countryside outside Serian. The intestinal helminths detected were Ascaris lumbricoides, Trichuris trichiura, Enterobius vermicularis and hookworm. Children from the rural schools had higher numbers of eggs in their faeces than those from the Serian schools. Children from the rural primary schools had higher number of eggs than those from the rural secondary school. The prevalence of Ascaris, Trichuris and hookworms in male and female and in primary and secondary school children was recorded.
BACKGROUND: Iron deficiency and its consequent anemia constitute the commonest micronutrient deficiency in the world.
OBJECTIVE: We investigated whether long-term, weekly iron-folate supplements administered at school would improve hemoglobin and ferritin concentrations in adolescent girls, including those with mild-to-moderate anemia and hemoglobin concentrations indicating borderline anemia.
DESIGN: Subjects were 266 girls with hemoglobin concentrations of 80-119.9 g/L (group A) and 358 girls with hemoglobin concentrations of 120-130 g/L (group B) who were otherwise healthy. Two hundred sixty-six girls in group A and 268 girls in group B were randomly assigned to receive either 60 or 120 mg Fe plus 3.5 mg folic acid weekly for 22 wk. Ninety of the girls in group B were randomly assigned to receive only 5 mg folic acid weekly. Capillary hemoglobin and plasma ferritin were measured at baseline and after 12 and 22 wk of supplementation.
RESULTS: By the end of the study, 2% of the girls had dropped out and > 96% had taken > or = 20 of the 22 tablets; side effects were minimal. Mean plasma ferritin increased significantly in all iron-supplemented groups, independently of initial hemoglobin values and iron doses. Ferritin concentrations decreased in the girls supplemented with folic acid only. As expected, hemoglobin responses to iron were higher in group A than in group B and increases were positively correlated with initial plasma ferritin. Hemoglobin failed to respond to folate supplementation if initial plasma ferritin concentrations were low. Mean hemoglobin increased significantly and consistently in relation to the length of treatment.
CONCLUSION: Long-term, weekly iron-folate supplementation was found to be a practical, safe, effective, and inexpensive method for improving iron nutrition in adolescent schoolgirls.
Comment in: Picciano MF. Iron and folate supplementation: an effective intervention in
adolescent females. Am J Clin Nutr. 1999 Jun;69(6):1069-70. PubMed PMID:
10357724. https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/69/6/1069/4714856
Study site: 3 secondary schools, Samarahan district, Sarawak, Malaysia
This case study of medical schools in Malaysia addresses their role in meeting the demands of a young nation. Throughout the growth and development of these medical schools, there have been efforts to coordinate and cooperate with providers of health care. The treatment of illness must mesh with the changing paradigm of health and wellness as an achievable and indeed desirable goal, not only for the individual but also for society. The scientific basis of medicine is being emphasized with the advent of evidence-based medicine and outcome measures. Innovations have been made to bring the schools in closer contact with the service providers. Malaysia has prepared farsighted plans to become a developed nation by the year 2020. Accordingly, its health services will use advances in information technology and will introduce telemedicine in various strategic applications to extend the reach of the health care team. It is incumbent on the medical schools to move in concert with the Ministry of Health to realize goals of the nation and the society.
Much has been said in various anaesthetic journals about the need to teach medical undergraduates in areas such as basic life support skills and resuscitation. Anaesthesiology as a specialty can contribute significantly in this aspect of teaching. The question is how should it be incorporated into the existing curriculum, given the fact that anaesthesiology constitutes a minor role in the undergraduate medical curriculum? This article attempts to answer this question and proposes the possible integration of anaesthesiology with the other major clinical specialties. This curriculum forms the basis of anaesthesiology curriculum at the Kulliyah of Medicine, International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM).
The number of dentists in Japan may be too high. The ratio of dentists/population, in China, Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia, is less than 1 dentist for every 10,000 people. From this data, it can be seen that there is a shortage of dentists in China, Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia. The shortage of pediatric dentists in these Asian countries is serious, particularly in the Philippines where the number of children with dental caries is increasing. There is an urgent need to increase the number of pediatric dentists in these countries. However, one problem is that dental schools in the Philippines and Singapore, do not have a department of pediatric dentistry.
Matched MeSH terms: Schools, Dental/statistics & numerical data
Growth status was examined in relation to gender and age factors in urban primary school children (6-10 years old) from low income households in Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan. The sample consisted of 4212 boys (53%) and 3793 girls (47%). Data on weight and height data were obtained from two sources - investigator's and teachers' measurements of the school children. This study defined mildly and significantly underweight, stunted or wasted as z-score below minus one and below minus two of the NCHS/CDC reference median, respectively. Approximately 52% (n = 4149), 50% (n = 3893) and 30% (n = 2568) of the school children were underweight, stunted and wasted, respectively. However, the majority of these undernourished children were in the mild category. Prevalence of overweight (> 2 SD of NCHS/WHO reference median) was found in 5.8% of the sample. For both, prevalence of undernutrition and overnutrition, more boys than girls were found to be underweight stunted wasted and overweight. Compared to girls, boys had lower mean z-scores for the variables height-for-age (p<0.05) and weight-for-height (p<0.01). Older children had significantly lower mean z-scores for height-for-age (p<0.001) but higher mean z-scores for weight-for-height (P<0.001) than younger children. This finding indicates that with increasing age, stunting is associated with improved weight-for-height or that the children's weights have been adapted to their short statures. In conclusion, results demonstrate a high prevalence of underweight, stunting and wasting and an increasing prevalence of overweight among these low-income school children. Efforts recommended to address health and nutrition problems among school children should include health and nutrition monitoring (e.g. growth monitoring using the existing growth data collected by schools) and interventions.
This study was conducted to evaluate the implementation of the School Supplement Feeding Program (SSFP) among primary school in terms of financial management and budget disbursement, food preparation, selection of menus and nutrient content of food served. A total of 129 schools comprising 77 national type, 31 Chinese and 21 Tamil vernacular schools in four different regions (northern, eastern, central and southern) of Peninsular Malaysia were selected for this study. The results of this cross-sectional study showed a need to improve the budget disbursement to schools. Most of the schools followed the guidelines provided by the Ministry of Education for selection of eligible children. The quality of food prepared by contracted (local community members) and voluntary (teachers) operators. The use of 10 recommended menus provided for a 2-week cycle by most of the schools has shown increased acceptance and less monotonous feeling towards the food among the children. Nutrient content of food served increased relatively with an increase in budget from RM0.45 to RM0.80 per child. Parents surveyed indicated that the program should continue as this will keep children from low income families from being hungry during school hours. A continued process of monitoring and evaluation is necessary to improve its implementation.
The determination of goiter prevalence in children by thyroid ultrasound is an important tool for assessing iodine deficiency disorders. The current World Health Organization/International Council for the Control of Iodine Deficiency Disorders (WHO/ICCIDD) normative values, based on thyroid volume in iodine-sufficient European children, have recently been questioned, as thyroid volumes in iodine-sufficient children from the USA and Malaysia are smaller than the WHO/ICCIDD reference data. Our objective was to describe ultrasonographic thyroid volumes in a representative national sample of iodine-sufficient Swiss school children, and to compare these with the current reference data for thyroid volume.