Aim: The objective of this study was to assess the school environment by interviewing the teachers and compare the school environment score between rural and urban schools in Terengganu, Malaysia.
Methods: Thirty-two teachers from 16 primary schools in Terengganu were interviewed using a set of validated Malay version "School Environmental Mapping" questionnaire. A total of 76 items consisting of four domains of school environment factor: physical (what is available) with 41 items; economic (what the costs are) with nine items; political (what the rules are) with nine items; and socio-cultural (what the attitudes and beliefs are) with 17 items. Every item was questioned using an initial closed question followed by an open question when the criteria were not met or need further information regarding those particular items.
Results: The present study revealed that the school environment of school in state of Terengganu is still low and not satisfied. Based on the schoolteacher's information and observation, there are significant barriers to promoting healthy eating and physical activity at school e.g. limited financial and budget allocation; lack of school facilities; lack of manpower to organise and monitor the programme; lack of participation and cooperation from parents; and no enforcement and serious action from authorized personnel on street hawkers near the school. This is reflected by the score achieved for 16 schools in Terengganu was only 63.05%. The political environment indicated the highest score among the domains, which was 77.78%, whereas, the lowest score was an economic environment (50.00%). Upon comparing between the urban and rural areas, the present study reported that there was a significant difference between school settings (p < 0.001) for an overall school environment, in which the rural areas had a significantly higher score than urban counterparts (64.86% vs 59.34%, p < 0.001). For each domain of the school environment, the findings showed that only two domains (physical and political environment) were significantly different between school settings.
Conclusion: This study revealed that the level of a healthy school environment among schools in both settings is still not satisfied. Addressing the obesogenic elements of school environments is one of the strategies in prevention since the school environments exert a great influence on children's behaviour.
OBJECTIVE: We estimated the long-term maintenance costs of CI including repair of speech processors, replacement of damaged parts, and battery requirements.
RESULTS: Forty-one parents of children who received CIs in Malaysian government hospitals were enrolled. The first 2 years of CI usage were covered by warranty. The cost increased three-fold from by 4 years of CI usage and then doubled by 8 years of usage. About 75% of parents commented that the costs were burdensome.
CONCLUSION: Our findings will be useful for parents whose children receive CI and will allow medical personnel to counsel the parents about the costs.
METHODS: A cross-sectional study using an online survey from October to December 2021, was carried out in five Arab countries in the Middle East. A reliable health belief model (HBM) including five domains: severity, susceptibility, benefits, barriers and cues to action, was adopted. Chi-square, Mann-Whitney test, and multivariable logistic regression were performed for data analysis.
RESULTS: The survey response rate was 58 % (1154/2000). Only 56 % of Arab parents are intended to vaccinate their children against COVID-19. The mean scores of parental health belief are largely driven by their concern over the vaccine's side effect (p = 0.001) followed by its efficacy, safety (p
MATERIALS AND METHOD: An online survey distributed for this study was completed by 235 parents.
RESULTS: Most of the parents of children with CCN who participated in this study reported that their children used low-tech AAC systems. A majority of respondents were satisfied with their child's AAC system. Parental satisfaction was positively associated with the frequency of use and whether the use of AAC helped parents understand the child better. Challenges reported by parents when using AAC and the reason some families abandoned the use of AAC were similar. Examples of challenges include parents having limited time and the child lacking the motivation to use the AAC system.
CONCLUSION: The findings of this study suggest the importance of SLPs actively involving parents in the selection of their children's AAC system so they are agreeable with the system introduced and continuously supporting children and their families to encourage and sustain the use of AAC. Implications for rehabilitationSpeech-language pathologists (SLPs) can create communication opportunities for the child to use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) and experience success, teach parents how to incorporate AAC into the family's daily routine and activities, and reduce the demands on parents by preparing the AAC materials and programming the AAC system where possible.SLPs can provide ongoing support to school teachers to equip them with the necessary knowledge and skills to support the use of AAC in the classroom.
METHODS: The Food Sensations® for Parents five-week program was delivered to participants from community-based parenting organisations during 2020 and 2021. Formative research and a pre-post evaluation design were adopted.
RESULTS: Pre- and post-evaluation data were collected from 224 participants (96% female). There was a statistically significant improvement in the mean score for 13 food literacy behaviours, 10 positive parenting feeding practices and a mean increase in parents' daily vegetable intake of 1/3 serve. Participants reported significantly greater net improvements in food literacy behaviours than feeding practices, the largest being the Use a nutrition information panel to make food choices (33.1%). Multivariate logistic regression analyses found English as a first language, being older than 35, and from a higher Socio-Economic Index for Areas resulted in a higher likelihood of positive changes in behaviours and practices.
CONCLUSIONS: The findings indicate that the program is effective in improving the frequency of use of food literacy behaviours, positive parenting feeding practices and increasing vegetable consumption. SO WHAT?: Analysing improvements in food literacy behaviours and feeding practices provides clarity on what change can be expected with a five-week parent program.
OBJECTIVES: This study assessed the knowledge, attitude, and practice of female genital mutilation among female health care service providers in order to formulate appropriate policies and programs to eliminate this harmful practice.
DESIGN: Facility-based cross-sectional survey conducted in 2019 among female doctors and nurses working in Banadir Hospital, Mogadishu, Somalia.
METHODS: A total of 144 female health care service providers were randomly selected, and data were collected through a pre-tested, semi-structured questionnaire. Quantitative data were analyzed by using the statistical software SPSS (Version 21), and qualitative data were analyzed thematically in accordance with the objectives of the study.
RESULTS: The study found that about three-fifths of the respondents had undergone some forms of female genital mutilation during their life. An overwhelming majority believed that female genital mutilation practices were medically harmful, and a majority of them expressed their opinion against the medicalization of the practice of female genital mutilation. The study also observed a significant association between participants' age and their negative attitudes regarding the legalization of female genital mutilation.
CONCLUSION: Health care service providers' effort is critical to eliminating this harmful practice from the Somalian society. Strong policy commitment and a comprehensive health-promotion effort targeting the parents and community leaders are essential to avert the negative impact of female genital mutilation.
METHODS: This study involved developing a questionnaire and was conducted in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from July 2021 until June 2022. The questionnaire was developed based on a literature review and expert consultation. The first phase includes a systematic literature review to generate the items for the questionnaire. A group of five panels was then invited to perform content validity for the questionnaire. Face validity was conducted among ten parents to get feedback for the questionnaire. Construct validity and reliability of the questionnaire were measured by which the questionnaire was administered to a total of 134 parents and 64 parents for reliability test.
RESULT: The final PEPC-KAPQ consists of four main sections: demographic, knowledge, attitude, and practice with 52 items. The content validity index was 0.85 for all domains of KAP. Modified kappa showed excellent value for most items for all domains. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin sampling adequacy showed acceptable scores of 0.84, and Bartlett's Test of Sphericity was significant (x2 = 3172.09, p<0.0001). Kuder-Richardson-2 of the domain knowledge was 0.95. Cronbach's α coefficient of domain attitude and practice were 0.92 and 0.88, respectively and the intraclass correlation of domain attitude and practice were 0.93 and 0.94 respectively. Bland and Altman's plots show that majority of the data fell within the limits of agreement.
CONCLUSION: The findings of this validation and reliability study show that the developed questionnaire has a satisfactory psychometric property for measuring the KAP of parents regarding eye problems among children.