Accepted 21 July 2011.
Introduction The extensive and intensive use of pesticides in agricultural practices has exposed farmers to various hazards resulting in varying degrees of health
outcomes.
Methods We conducted a cross-sectional study among paddy farmers in Sabak Bernam district, Malaysia. The objective of this study was to gather baseline information on chlorpyrifos blood level and its relationship with pesticides exposure symptoms.
Results We detected chlorpyrifos in farmers’ blood in 7 percent of the respondents, with mean 7.29 nanogram per millilitre blood (sd 5.84 nanogram per millilitre). The percentage of farmers who experienced at least one pesticide exposure symptoms was 75 percent. However, we found no significant association between chlorpyrifos blood level and its exposure symptoms. The farmers had low scores on safe practice of pesticide use even though they have high marks on knowledge and attitude. We found no significant association between the scores on knowledge, attitude and practice on pesticide use and the chlorpyrifos blood level.
Conclusions The presence of pesticide exposure symptoms proved that most of the farmers were exposed to hazardous effects of pesticides. Specific trainings on safe use and handling of pesticides should be given on regular basis to these farmers to ensure they are protected from hazardous effects of pesticides exposure.
The determination of the high-risk area and clusters of typhoid cases is critical in typhoid control. The purpose of this study was to identify and describe the epidemiology and spatial distribution of typhoid in four selected districts in Kelantan using GIS (geographical information system). A total of 1215 (99%) of the cases were coordinated with GPS (global positioning system) and mapping was done using ArcGIS 9.2. Spatial analysis was performed to determine the cluster and high-risk area of typhoid. Results showed that typhoid incidence was not associated with race and sex. Most affected were from the age group of 5-14 followed by 15-24 year olds. Nine sub-districts were categorized as highly endemic. In addition typhoid has shown a significant tendency to cluster and a total of 22 hotspots were found in Kota Bharu, Bachok and Tumpat with a few sub districts identified as high risk for typhoid. No significant relationships between the treated water ratio and flood risk area were found with the cluster of cases. The cluster of typhoid cases in the endemic area did not appear to be related to environmental risk factors. Understanding the characteristics of these clusters would enable the prevention of typhoid disease in the future.
Prostate cancer is forth most common diagnosed tumors in Malaysian male. The use of a self-reported, quality of life assessment is important for clinical practice, care taker and researcher to evaluate the level of quality of life. The aim of this study was to measure the internal consistency of the translated Malay Language EORTC QLQ-C30 and EORTC PR-25 questionnaires among prostate cancer patient at National University of Malaysia hospital in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Introduction: Cholera epidemics can produce devastating public health outcomes. Cholera distribution is influenced by temperature, precipitation, elevation, distance to the coastline and oceanic environmental factors such as sea surface temperature, sea surface height and ocean chlorophyll concentration. The purpose of this study is to describe the spatial epidemiology of cholera in the four districts of Sabah. Methods: This is a retrospective review of 4 years (2011 to 2014) data from the districts of Kota Kinabalu, Penampang, Putatan and Papar, Sabah. All reported cases of cholera from those areas are included. Coordinates for locations of the cases are based on home addresses. SPSS v20, ArcGIS v10 and CrimeStat IV were used for data analysis and mapping. Results: Cholera showed several clustering of cases, such as in 2011 and 2014 in Kota Kinabalu. In the year 2011 and 2013, Penampang and Papar districts had the nearest neighbour index of less than 1, but p value was not significant, meaning the pattern did not appear to be significant. Nearest neighbour hierarchical clustering analysis further revealed cholera had 7 clusters, of those 6 were first order and 1 was a second order cluster. Conclusion: Cholera shows disease clustering which could mean it is due to its common point source or localised human to human transmission. Using GIS as a tool may help in surveillance and control of cholera infections.
Dengue fever is an illness by arthropod-borne viral disease that become known pandemic to the most tropical countries. In 2014, Malaysia reported 108 698 cases of dengue fever with 215 deaths which increased tremendously compared to 49 335 cases with 112 deaths in 2008 and 30 110 cases with 69 deaths in 2009. This study aimed to identify the best method in determining dengue outbreak threshold for Negeri Sembilan and hopefully these methods can be standardized as it can help to send uniform messages to inform the general public and make the outbreak analysis comparable within and between countries. Methodology : Using retrospective Negeri Sembilan country dataset from 1st epid week of 2011 till the 52nd epid week of 2016. The data were split into two periods: 1) a 3-year historic period (2011–2013), used to calibrate and parameterise the model, and a 1-year evaluation period (2014); 2) a 2-year historic period (2014–2016), used to calibrate and parameterise the model, and a 1-year evaluation period (2016), used to test the model. E-dengue is a registration system for confirm case dengue by Ministry of Health. Data include details of cases, district locality, records on the outbreak and epidemiological week (Sunday to Saturday). The variables were captured using the Excel spreadsheet. Analysis method included endemic channel method, moving average or deviation bar chart and recent mean. Result: Seremban as big district and facing with heavy dengue cases, all three methods (endemic curve, current mean and moving mean) showed promising results. Meanwhile comparing with small district of Port Dickson and Tampin with fewer dengue cases and outbreak recorded, the suitable method is by using endemic channel for epidemic threshold. Conclusion: Simpler methods such as the endemic channel, recent mean and moving mean may be more appropriate in urban district. Whereas in rural or district with minimal dengue cases, Endemic Channel would be the most suitable method for epidemic threshold. However, both methods require a consistent updated graph threshold as time progress.
Objective: Truancy is a disciplinary problem, which frequently occurs among school students and it has many contributory as well as inter-related factors. It is a growing problem in this country and it often becomes a prelude to other delinquent behaviours. The study objective is to determine the prevalence of truancy as well as factors related to it including psycho-behavioural factors. Methods: A cross-sectional study involving 556 Malay student’s selected using multi-stage sampling was conducted. Results: The overall prevalence of truancy is 30.2%. The predictors to truancy are age, students who frequenting entertainment centre, students who have not completed Quran recital, coping strategies using problems solving methods and time spent watching television/video. There is a significant association between truancy and psycho-behaviour such as watching video/internet pornography, frequenting entertainment centre, smoking, motorcycle racing and dating a special friend. Conclusion: Truancy is a social issue, which must be given serious attention by all concerned components of the society.
The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence and factors associated with of Premature Ejaculation &Erectile Dysfunctionamong Malaysian men.A cross-sectional study was conducted in urban and rural areas using standardized and validated self-administeredquestionnaires.A total of 319 samples were recruited for PE screening. The overall prevalence of PE was 31.7% with 20.7% and 40.8% for urban and rural arearespectively. Depression, anxiety and frequent masturbation were significantly associated with PE. While For ED, infrequent sexual intercourse was the sole factor significantly associated with ED.PE and ED were highly prevalent in both urban and rural areas; with several significant preventable associated factors.
Introduction A study was conducted to determine the level of mothers' perception on children with cleft deformity and its associated factors
Methods This was a cross sectional study involving 110 mothers with children attending the Plastic And Reconstructive Surgery Clinic. Data was gathered from a face to face interview based on a questionnaire that assesses the level of perception and its associated factors. The level of perception was evaluated from a scoring method and divided into four domains namely psychosocial, care management, treatment and education.
Results The level of perception was high in all four domains ranged from 62% for treatment and 80% for education. Factors that were significantly associated with the level of perception were ethnicity, religion, type of cleft deformity and level of information.
Conclusions Information regarding cleft deformity must be tailored toward mothers’ personal characteristics and type of cleft deformity to improve mothers' perception on this problem.
Study site: Plastic And Reconstructive Surgery Clinic, Hospital Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia