Methods: Data were obtained from the Social Security Organization, Malaysia database consisting of 10,049 RTW program participants in 2010-2014. The dependent variable was the RTW outcome which consisted of RTW with same employer, RTW with new employer or unsuccessful return. Multinomial logistic regression was performed to test the likelihood of successful return with same employer and new employer against unsuccessful return.
Results: Overall, 65.3% of injured workers were successfully returned to employment, 52.8% to the same employer and 12.5% to new employer. Employer interest; motivation; age 30-49 years; intervention less than 9 months; occupational disease; injuries in the lower limbs, upper limbs, and general injuries; and working in the manufacturing, services, and electrical/electronics were associated with returning to work with the same employer against unsuccessful return. Male, employer interest, motivation, age 49 years or younger, intervention less than 6 months, occupational disease, injuries in the upper limbs and services sector of employment were associated with returning to new employer against unsuccessful return.
Conclusion: There is a need to strengthen employer commitment for early and intensified intervention that will lead to improvement in the RTW outcome.
Methods: We conducted a comparative cross-sectional study between tuberculosis cases and tuberculosis contacts among pediatric patients using the Tuberculosis Information System as a source population. All notified cases that fulfilled the inclusion and exclusion criteria were included in the study. Descriptive statistics, simple and multiple logistic regressions were used for data analysis.
Results: Of 5412 tuberculosis cases, 456 (8.4%) were pediatric patients with a mean age of 15.9 years. The majority had the pulmonary form of tuberculosis (78.1%) followed by the extrapulmonary (14.9%) and pulmonary form with concomitant extrapulmonary (7.0%) forms. Of all pulmonary tuberculosis cases, 64.9% were sputum smear-positive, and 35.1% were sputum smear-negative. Among 322 pediatric patients with tuberculosis, the majority were Malay (90.7%), 8.4% were illiterate, and 79.5% resided in non-urban areas. Of all cases, 2.8% were HIV-positive, and 14.6% were cigarette smokers. Older age, Malay ethnicity, female gender, non-urban residence, good education level, and cigarette smoking were the significant associated factors for tuberculosis disease among pediatric patients with an adjusted odds ratio (aOR) of 1.41 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.29-1.54; p < 0.001), 0.17 (95% CI: 0.07-0.44; p < 0.001), 1.88 (95% CI: 1.33-2.65; p < 0.001), 1.92 (95% CI: 1.33-2.79; p = 0.001), 0.20 (95% CI: 0.12-0.33; p < 0.001), and 3.35 (95% CI: 1.86-6.01; p < 0.001), respectively.
Conclusions: The study will assist practices of tuberculosis detection and control management in the local setting and may help other national tuberculosis programs to review their detection criteria with similar statistics.
METHODS: The polyphenolic compounds in SCFE were identified with Reverse phase-high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC). Meanwhile, murine 3T3-L1 preadipocytes, measuring leptin levels, reactive oxygen species (ROS), and lipid and triglyceride (TG) contents were utilized during anti-adipogenic activity assessments. Concurrently, the effects of SCFE on adipogenic transcription factors were established with quantitative real-time-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR).
RESULTS: The RP-HPLC results indicated three polyphenolic compounds in SCFE, including one flavonoid (naringin) and two phenolic acids (syringic and p-coumaric). Although SCFE treatments (250-1000 μg/mL) did not result in cell toxicity, they significantly reduced dose-dependent lipid accumulation, ROS production, and TG and leptin levels relative to control-differentiated adipocytes. Moreover, SCFE suppressed sterol regulatory element binding protein-1 (SREBP-1), peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma (PPAR-γ), and CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein-alpha (C/EBP-α) gene expressions during preadipocyte differentiation into adipocytes.
CONCLUSION: The findings revealed the anti-adipogenic properties of SCFE, indicating its potential as a natural obesity management remedy. Nevertheless, more studies are necessary to elucidate the reactions resulting in SCFE anti-adipogenic effects and the active constituents responsible for the property.