Introduction: This cross-sectional study aimed to determine association of age and gender with dental treatment need among first-visit patients at Dental Outpatient Clinic, IIUM Kuantan in 2016.
Materials and Methods: Ethical approval (IREC 762) was obtained from IIUM Human Ethics Committee. List of first-visit patients who attended clinic from 1st January to 31st December 2016 was retrieved to assess patient's age and gender. Dental treatment need was determined according to the normative need which was professionally defined by dental-officer-in-charge. All first-visit patients were included, except those attended Orthodontic department or with old Malaysian identification card or foreign passport. Included patients were classified into six age groups (≤14, 15-19, 20-34, 35-44, 45-64 and ≥ 65). Pearson's chi square test was used for statistical analysis using SPSS Version 20 software.
Results: From a total number of 2,713 patients (age range of 2 to 87), 1,210 (44.6%) were males and 1,503 (55.4%) were females. Age (p<0.001) and gender (p<0.001) were significantly associated with dental treatment need. Paediatric patients (≤14) majorly received paedodontic care (97.5%). Young-age patients (15-19, 20-34 and 35-44) mostly required conservative care (39.5%, 31.2% & 30.6%, respectively) while elder-age patients (45-64 and ≥ 65) have major need for prosthodontics (30.0% & 40.2%, respectively). Females outnumbered males in all age groups, except for the age group of ≥ 65 whereby the situation was the opposite. Females also outnumbered males in all types of treatment need, except for periodontics which was predominated by males.
Conclusion(s): Age and gender have significant associations with treatment need for dental care.
KEYWORDS: treatment need, dental, association, age, gender
Dentist-related factors are one of the major influences on the material selection for
restoration of carious and non-carious tooth surface loss. There were conflicting results regarding
the impact of dentists' gender and age or length of clinical experience on restorative material
selection for posterior dentition. The aims of this study were to determine the influence of gender
and clinical experience on posterior restorative material selection among private dental
practitioner in Malaysia. (Copied from article).
There is a large volume of published studies describing the adverse relationship between treatment non-adherence with tuberculosis treatment outcome. Non-adherence could result in increased risks of prolonged infectiousness, drug resistance, relapse cases and poor survival among tuberculosis patients. Nevertheless, few studies are to be found providing detailed on the reason of defaulting treatment among tuberculosis patients in Malaysia. Hence the goal of this paper is to find out the barriers and motivations factors that affect patients’ treatment compliance among our local tuberculosis patients. This is a qualitative study which included 12 in-depth interviews with tuberculosis non-compliance patients who were treated at Institute of Respiratory Medicine, Kuala Lumpur. All the conversations were recorded, transcribed and analysed by using thematic analysis. It was found that low knowledge, self-negative attitudes, traditional believes, negative perceptions towards health caregiver, drug side effects, stigma, financial problems, less family support and work commitments are the barriers that prevent the patients from religiously taking their anti-tuberculosis treatment. Meanwhile, factors that encourage them to continue their treatment were the believes of bad effects of the disease onto their lives and health, good relationship between patient and health caregiver and social support from people around them. In conclusion, non-adherence involved a dynamic influence of individual, socio-economic and treatment-related factors on the patients. The results presented here may facilitate improvement in the activities in promoting compliance among tuberculosis patients in the future which tailored to the patients’ specific needs.
Tuberculosis or TB is a major issue in Malaysia as the dramatic emerge of infection. In Mac 2016 (Until 15 April 2016)
3049 cases were reported and total cases were reported 7717 cases which increasing 902 (13.0%) cases at same month
2015 (6815 cases). Meanwhile, prevention and diagnosis should be started from children. Educational planning with
the collaboration from Ministry of Education (MOE) and Ministry of Health (MOH) should be intensive to ensure the
prevention and mechanism control of this disease can be cure at the beginning. The focus of the study was given on the
(1) transmission of tuberculosis (TB) in Malaysia (2) practice of prevention of TB (3) mechanism control in educational
institutions and (4) promotion health programmes in schools. The conclusion of this study is drawn on the premise of
providing plausible suggestion that will promote good governance for the Ministry of Education (MOE) and Ministry of
Health (MOH) to strengthening the current policy for a better future implementation.
Gout is a type of arthritis that causes painful inflammation in one or more joints. In gout, elevation of uric acid in the blood triggers the formation of crystals, causing joint pain. Malaysia is a mega-biodiversity country that is rich in medicinal plants species. Therefore, its flora might offer promising therapies for gout. This article aims to systematically review the anti-gout potential of Malaysian medicinal plants. Articles on gout published from 2000 to 2017 were identified using PubMed, Scopus, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar with the following keyword search terms: "gout," "medicinal plants," "Malaysia," "epidemiology," "in vitro," and "in vivo." In this study, 85 plants were identified as possessing anti-gout activity. These plants had higher percentages of xanthine oxidase inhibitory activity (>85%); specifically, the Momordica charantia, Chrysanthemum indicum, Cinnamomum cassia, Kaempferia galanga, Artemisia vulgaris, and Morinda elliptica had the highest values, due to their diverse natural bioactive compounds, which include flavonoids, phenolics, tannin, coumarins, luteolin, and apigenin. This review summarizes the anti-gout potential of Malaysian medicinal plants but the mechanisms, active compounds, pharmacokinetics, bioavailability, and safety of the plants still remain to be elucidated.
An overview of the Oriental species of Cleruchus Enock (Hymenoptera: Mymaridae) is given, and its five newly described species as well as one undescribed species from Malaysia are keyed. The described new taxa are C. funiculatus Manickavasagam Palanivel sp. n., C. indicus Manickavasagam Palanivel sp. n. and C. orientalis Manickavasagam Palanivel sp. n., all from India, C. blimp Triapitsyn sp. n. from Brunei, and C. pmilb Triapitsyn sp. n. from Thailand. Anaphes quinquearticulatus Huber Triapitsyn is newly reported from India.