Oral health care during pregnancy is greatly important as it is crucial to the health
and well-being to both pregnant mother and baby. Studies showed that mothers with oral health
problem have greater risk of prematurity and low birth weight babies. This study aimed to measure
the associated factors of oral health problem among pregnant mothers. (Copied from article).
Introduction: Undernutrition among under-five children is a very common issue in Malaysia, especially among the Orang Asli population. Therefore, identifying the prevalence and factors associated with undernutrition will assist in tackling the issue of undernutrition and reducing the morbidity and mortality rate associated with it. Methods: A total of 47 conveniently selected Orang Asli children aged 6 to 59 months from Kampung Paya Bungor, Gambang, Kuantan, Pahang participated in this cross-sectional study. A face-to-face interview was carried out by using the validated Questionnaire for the Study of Malnutrition in Rural Malaysia 2009. The weight and height of the children were measured and plotted on the growth chart. All the data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics Version 24.0. Descriptive statistics was used to describe the background characteristics of the respondents and univariate analyses were used to identify suitable factors to be included in multivariate analysis. Binary logistic regression was done to determine independent factors associated with undernutrition. Results: The overall prevalence of undernutrition was 55.3%. The prevalence of underweight, stunting and wasting was 34.0%, 34.0% and 14.9% respectively. This research also revealed that gender (p=0.042) and family size (p=0.024) was shown to have a statistically significant association with undernutrition. However, there were no significant associations between undernutrition with other factors. Conclusion: The prevalence of undernutrition among under-five Orang Asli children was a concern. It was found that the factors associated with undernutrition were female children and children from small families. Prompt interventions aimed at the Orang Asli community should be done to overcome these problems.
The aim of this study was to develop a new validated questionnaire to assess the health impact of divorce on women. A
cross sectional study was undertaken in a district in Terengganu, using a newly developed self-administered Malay
language questionnaire comprising of six domains and 82 items. The questionnaire was constructed based on the
literature review and discussions with experts. Exploratory factor analysis was applied in construct validity and internal
consistency was used for reliability analysis. A total of 51 respondents were involved in this study. All the consented
divorcees were Malays. The mean (SD) age for the divorced women was 35.8 (10.00). Majority (82.4%) of them had
secondary education. All the final three domains demonstrated Keiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) of more than 0.6, significant
Bartlett’s test of Sphericity and Cronbach’s alpha of more than 0.80. The overall Cronbach’s alpha was excellent (0.920).
The final questionnaire consisted of two domains. Factor loading for all items in each subdomains were satisfactory. The
final functional somatic symptoms domain consisted of 6 subdomains and 19 items with factor loading from 0.402 to
0.914. For emotional instability domain, the final items were 13 items with factor loading from 0.548 to 0.878. The
questionnaire was valid and reliable to be used for functional somatic symptoms and emotional instability domains. It is
useful to assess the health impact and related intervention of divorced women. A confirmatory factor analysis may
further confirm the final model.