Subjects and methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at the Faculty of Medicine in Rabigh, King Abdul-Aziz University, Saudi Arabia. The study included 197 medical students from Rabigh and Jeddah branches of the university. The study employed a Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease Questionnaire which is derived from a self-administered validated GERD questionnaire (GerdQ).
Results: The prevalence of GERD symptoms was 25.9%. The most frequent symptoms were regurgitation and burning sensation. High BMI, family history, energy drinks and fried food were found to be statistically significant risk factors (p<0.05) by univariate analysis. However, the logistic regression for the prediction of GERD symptoms among medical students showed that only family history had a significant correlation (p<0.05).
Conclusion: GERD symptoms were common in medical students of King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia. Family history was found to be a significant predictor of GERD symptoms. Effective educational strategies for groups with significant risk factors of GERD need to be implemented.
Method: This study was conducted between November and December 2016 at two primary care clinics that offered integrated diabetes care at the time. These sites were selected to assess the discriminative validity of the PACIC. Site 1 is a Malaysian Ministry of Health-run primary care clinic while site 2 is a university-run hospital-based primary care clinic. Only site 1 annually monitors patient performance and encourages them to achieve their HbA1c targets using a standard checklist. Patients with diabetes mellitus who understood English were recruited. Participants were asked to fill out the PACIC at baseline and two weeks later.
Results: A total of 200 out of the 212 invited agreed to participate (response rate=94.3%). Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the 5-factor structure of the PACIC. The overall PACIC score and the score in two of the five domains were significantly higher at site 1 than at site 2. The overall Cronbach's alpha was 0.924. At test-retest, intra-class correlation coefficient values ranged from 0.641 to 0.882.
Conclusion: The English version of the PACIC was found to be a valid and reliable instrument to assess the quality of care among patients with diabetes mellitus in Malaysia.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was carried out among 51 cleaners. The respondents' background information and respiratory symptoms were gathered using a series of standardised questionnaires validated by the American Thoracic Society (ATS-DLD-78-A). The 8- hour respirable dust exposure to cleaners was measured using an air sampling pump (Gillian & Sensodyne Gil Air 3).
RESULTS: The mean of respirable dust was lower than permissible exposure limit with 0.63±0.57mg/m3. The respiratory symptoms among the cleaners showed no significant association between cough, phlegm, and breathing difficulties with working tenure. Meanwhile, wheezing and coughing with phlegm have an almost significant association with working tenure among cleaners with (Χ2=1.00, p=0.08) and (Χ2=1.00, p=0.07) respectively. Exposure to respirable dust has exhibited 6 times the prevalence of coughing with phlegm among cleaners (PR=6.28, 95% CI: 0.44, 89.38).
CONCLUSION: The findings of this study demonstrated that the cleaners were significantly affected by the respirable dust. The cleaners' working environment has caused them to be exposed to respirable dust.
METHODS: Teaching and Learning (T&L) activities were conducted virtually on e-learning platforms. The students' experience and feedback were evaluated after 15 weeks.
RESULTS: We found that while students preferred face-to-face, physical teaching, they were able to adapt to the new norm of e-learning. More than 60% of the students agreed that pre-recorded lectures and viewing videos of practical sessions, plus answering short questions, were beneficial. Certain aspects, such as hands-on practical and clinical experience, could never be replaced. The e-learning and study-from-home environment accorded a lot of flexibility. However, students also found it challenging to focus because of distractions, lack of engagement and mental stress. Technical problems, such as poor Internet connectivity and limited data plans, also compounded the problem.
CONCLUSION: We expect e-learning to prevail in future. Hybrid learning strategies, which includes face-to-face classes and e-learning, will become common, at least in the medical physics programme of the University of Malaya even after the pandemic.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among students at their first year at university in Europe, Asia, the Western Pacific, and Latin and North America. Data were obtained through a self-administered questionnaire, including questions on sociodemographic characteristics, depressive symptoms, and social capital. The simplified Beck's Depression Inventory was used to measure the severity of depressive symptoms. Social capital was assessed using items drawn from the World Bank Integrated Questionnaire to Measure Social Capital. Multilevel analyses were conducted to determine the relationship between social capital and depressive symptoms, adjusting for individual covariates (e.g., perceived stress) and country-level characteristics (e.g., economic development).
Results: Among 4228 students, 48% presented clinically relevant depressive symptoms. Lower levels of cognitive (OR: 1.82, 95% CI: 1.44-2.29) and behavioral social capital (OR: 1.51, 95% CI: 1.29-1.76) were significantly associated with depressive symptoms. The likelihood of having depressive symptoms was also significantly higher among those living in regions with lower levels of social capital.
Conclusion: The study demonstrates that lower levels of individual and macro-level social capital contribute to clinically relevant depressive symptoms among university students. Increasing social capital may mitigate depressive symptoms in college students.
METHODS AND ANALYSIS: To ensure conceptual and item equivalence, the original version of the PCPI-S will be reviewed and adapted for cultural context by an expert committee. The instrument will subsequently be translated into Malay language using the forward-backward translation method by two independent bilingual speaking individuals. This will be pretested in four primary care clinics and refined accordingly. The instrument will be assessed for its psychometric properties, such as test-retest reliability, construct and internal validity, using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis.
ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Study findings will be disseminated to healthcare professionals and academicians in the field through publication in peer-reviewed journals and conference presentations, as well as at managerial clinic sites for practice improvement. The study was approved by the Medical Research and Ethics Committee (MREC), Ministry of Health Malaysia (KKM/NIHSEC/ P18-766 (14) and Monash University Human Research Ethics Committee (2018-14363-19627).