Physical activity is an important component of cardiovascular health. The fact that physical activity is also associated with a substantial number of cognitive and academic benefits, therefore school teachers can be an important role model in promoting a physically-active lifestyle in school children. The aim of this study is to examine the levels of physical activity (PA) and its association with cardiovascular risk factors in a sample of school teachers. Forty-nine (n=49) female teachers from primary and secondary schools around Klang Valley urban areas were recruited. The PA level was determined using pedometer, worn for three consecutive days. Anthropometric measurements and blood samples were collected to determine cardiovascular risk factors. Findings showed that the school teachers recorded an overall mean (± SEM) of 7707 ± 490 steps/day, which is below the recommended target of 10 000 steps per day. According to pedometer-determined physical activity indices proposed by Tudor-Locke and Bassett (2004), 20.83% of the sample were classified as ‘sedentary’
The paediatric rehabilitation service in Malaysia is shifting from the traditional child-focused approach to a family-centred
approach. At present, there is a lack of an evaluation tool to assess to the quality of paediatric rehabilitation services, and
whether the services are in line with the principles of the family-centred service. This study was undertaken to assess validity
and reliability of the Malay version of the Measure of Processes of Care 20-item (MPOC-20) questionnaire in evaluating
family-centered approach in children rehabilitation services in Kuala Lumpur. The original English version of the MPOC-
20 was translated into Malay language, before it was administered to 102 parents of children receiving rehabilitation
service at the Occupational Therapy Unit, UKM Medical Centre. The component structure of the MPOC-20 Malay version
was examined using principal component analysis with Varimax rotation to explore the factor structures after translation.
Cronbach’s alpha was calculated to determine the internal consistency reliability of the factors identified in the MPOC-20
Malay version. The resultant four-factor model explained 64 % of the variance in the Malay MPOC-20 responses. All four
factors were similar to the five factors described in the original MPOC-20. All the 20 items were retained, with relocation of
some items into a new factor. The Malay version of the MPOC-20 showed good internal consistency with Cronbach’s alpha
values ranging from 0.75 to 0.90. This study demonstrates that the Malay version of the MPOC-20 is valid and reliable,
and is suitable for evaluation of the quality of child rehabilitation services in the Malaysian context.
The protective effect of the ethanol extract of the rhizome of Zingiber officinale Roscoe on acute hepatotoxicity induced by paracetamol (1000 mg/kg) was studied in plasma and hepatic tissue samples obtained from male Sprague-Dawley rats. The ethanol extract was given in oral doses of 200 mg/kg and 300 mg/kg to the rats at 0, 4 and 8 hrs after paracetamol was given orally. The plasma and liver of the rats were subjected to biochemical analysis 24 hrs after hepatotoxicity was induced to determine the levels of superoxide dismutase(SOD), malonaldehyde (MDA) and aspartate transaminase (AST). The results were compared to the rats which were given the antidote N-acetylcysteine (NAC) (500 mg/kg) at 0, 4 and 8 hrs after the paracetamol dose. The results showed that at 200 mg/kg the extract reduced the plasma levels of SOD significantly (p < 0.05) while at a higher dose of 300 mg/kg it reduced plasma SOD, hepatic MDA, serum AST and increased the levels of plasma proteins significantly (p < 0.05). In conclusion, the ethanol extract of Z. officinale showed protective effect against paracetamol induced hepatotoxicity at both dose levels and the protective effect was better at the higher dose.
A cross-sectional study was conducted among 200 Malays in Kuala Pilah, Tampin, Bahau, Gemencheh and Seremban towards food allergy in Negeri Sembilan. Questionnaire were used to determine demographic data, allergy symptom, practice and knowledge of respondents towards food allergy. Majority of the respondents that have food allergy were children 44% and shrimp was the most common allergen among children (25%). Family history is found to be associated with the age group and place of residents (p < 0.05). Common symptom that manisfested by respondents includes rashes (35%). Furthermore, the study showed that the respondents were concerned about their food allergy and 96% of the respondents reduced the intake of food that caused allergy. The level of knowledge related to food allergy was found to be associated with age group (p < 0.05). In conclusion, the study found that shrimp is the most common food allergy for all age group. Response towards food allergy is that they reduce the intake of food that cause allergy and the knowledge
towards food allergy is associated with age group. Therefore, early screening should be conducted to identify types of alergy so that appropriate treatment can be given to the patients. Health education on allergy is also important to improve knowledge and patients’ compliance towards treatment.
Keywords: Food; allergy; Malay; attitude; knowledge
Fungsi penglihatan dipengaruhi oleh proses penuaan dan tanpa intervensi yang bersesuaian boleh mengakibatkan kemerosotan tahap penglihatan. Keadaan ini jika berterusan akan mengakibatkan kesukaran melakukan aktiviti kehidupan seharian dan memberi kesan kepada kualiti hidup kepada warga emas. Kajian ini mengkaji kesan gangguan penglihatan terhadap aktiviti harian dan kualiti hidup warga emas. Ukuran yang dilakukan ialah tahap penglihatan jauh menggunakan carta LogMAR untuk menilai gangguan penglihatan. Ujian kualiti hidup dilaksanakan menggunakan soalan kualiti hidup penglihatan terhad (LVQOL) dan ujian keupayaan melakukan aktiviti harian menggunakan indeks Barthel (BI). Dapatan kajian menunjukkan bahawa gangguan fungsi penglihatan bertambah teruk dengan peningkatan umur, begitu juga didapati bahawa BI berkurangan apabila fungsi penglihatan merosot. Skor kualiti hidup LVQOL pula berkurangan bersama-sama kemerosotan tahap penglihatan. Tiga puluh lima peratus warga emas dalam kajian ini memerlukan intervensi optometri dan penglihatan terhad, Kesimpulannya, kemerosotan tahap fungsi penglihatan di kalangan warga emas boleh menyebabkan penurunan keupayaan dalam melakukan aktiviti harian. Di samping itu, akuiti visual yang tidak dibetulkan akan menyebabkan penurunan kualiti hidup warga emas.
The end stage renal disease (ESRD) patients requires hemodialysis to survive. Efficacy of the treatment is determined by evaluation of minimal dialysis dose (Kt/V) which is 1.2. A cross sectional study was conducted among patients that undergo hemodialysis in a dialysis centre in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The objectives of the study were to determine the association between dialysis dose and demographic factors and assessed the association between biochemical blood parameter and the demographic factors. The biochemical blood parameters were serum albumin, creatinine, cholesterol and hemoglobin. Result showed that all Indians and 54% of Chinese patients achieved the required dialysis dose. However only 29% of Malay patients attained the effective dialysis dose. More women patients accomplished the dialysis dose of at least 1.2 compared to men patients with odd ratio of 11.24. All the biochemical blood parameters were independent of the demographic factors. However, the cholesterol level was associated significantly with gender (p<0.05). In conclusion, the study found the biochemical blood parameter and dialysis dose were not influenced by the demographic factors.
Motivation camp is one of the learning interventions to assist underperform students in improving their academic performances in term of GPA (Grade Point Average). An intervention study was carried out to know the effectiveness of a motivation camp in improving the academic performances among the biomedical science students at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur. Total of 44 respondents were involved in this study from year 2 and year 3 and had been categorized into control and intervention groups (n = 22 per group). The intervention group was given motivational talks followed by a group discussion and self-reflection. The students in the intervention group were also assigned with academicians to facilitate and guide them throughout the motivational camp. The students were interested in motivational talks activity the most. The average GPA showed a significant improvement after the motivation camp with 3.01 ± 0.30 (p < 0.05) for the intervention group. Yet, control group also displayed a significant increment in the average GPA, 3.24 ± 0.06 (p < 0.05). In conclusion, motivation camp is one of the many learning intervention tools that strategize to help students in improving their academic performances but it should be complemented with other intervention methods.
This paper investigate the effect of parents’ education background and family monthly income on the Intelligence Quotient
(IQ) of students with special needs in Kelantan, Malaysia. This cross-sectional method study was employed multistage
random sampling to obtain information drawn from 130 participants from 10 selected school in Kelantan, Malaysia.
Questionnaire was used to obtain parents’ education background, family monthly income and demographic variables.
Students IQ were assessed using Comprehensive Test for Non-Verbal Intelligence (CTONI 2nd Edition). Data analysis involve
independent sample t-test, one-way between group ANOVA, Pearson’s correlation and multiple linear regression. From
analysis of IQ score, 63.8% of the special needs students scored very poor IQ, 12.3% scored below average and only
1.5% score average IQ. Significant mean difference were revealed between age group (p = 0.002), parents’ education (p
= 0.018) and family monthly income (p < 0.05) on special needs students IQ. Post-hoc tukey shows significance between
parents who never went to school, went to secondary school (p = 0.037) and university/college (p = 0.021). In term of
family monthly income, significance difference were found between family with low and high monthly income (p < 0.05).
Family monthly income (r = 0.393, p < 0.01) showed positive moderate correlation on special needs students IQ. After
being forwarded by multiple linear regression, it was found that family monthly income (B = 3.605, p < 0.05) and age
group of special needs students (B = 0.879, p = 0.002) were significant predictor for IQ score and explained 22.5% of
the variance (R2
= 0.225, F (5,124) = 83.94, p < 0.05. Overally, majority of special needs students in current study have
very poor IQ score. Further explanation are discussed on the paper.
Parents or caregivers of children with learning disabilities have been shown to experience increases in stress and greater negative caregiving consequences than those with typically developing children. The current study sought to assess the perceived stress among Malay caregivers of children with learning disabilities in Kelantan. The Malay version of Perceived Stress Scale 10 items was administered to a sample of 40 caregivers of children with learning disabilities who were registered to five Pusat Pemulihan Dalam Komuniti (PDK) in Kelantan. Higher scores indicate higher levels of stress. The caregivers had mean age of 47.68 (SD = 9.18) years old, of whom 90% were fathers or mothers. Ninety percent of them were married, majority were unemployed or housewives and had secondary school education. The majority of children with learning disabilities were males and half of them were Down Syndrome children. The mean total Perceived Stress Scale score of the caregivers was 16.77 (SD = 5.74). There were no significant associations between total perceived stress score and any of the independent variables. The mean total perceived stress score showed that the perceived stress level was in the category of slightly higher than average and health concern level was high, while the average stress level was between score of 12 to 15. In conclusion, this result indicated that the caregivers had slightly higher levels of stress than the average score, and might increase susceptibility to stress-induced illness.
Background: The Malaysian Dietary Guidelines recommended that at least two servings of fruits and three servings of vegetables be consumed daily. However, is there a relationship between daily fruit and vegetable intake and body mass index (BMI)? The aim of this study was to identify the relationship between fruit and vegetable intake and BMI among postgraduate students in the health sciences. Methodogy: A cross-sectional study was conducted at the Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. 44 postgraduate students from the 2019/2020 batch of health sciences took partn in this study. Respondents were asked to complete three parts of the questionnaire: socio-demographic data, anthropometric measurements, and self-administered questions. Results: The majority of respondents are female (n=44, 77.3%), and they are mainly Malay (n=22, 50.0%). The average BMI of all respondents is 23.76±4.83. This study found that majority of respondents did not meet the recommended daily fruit (n=31, 70.5%) and vegetable intake (n=23, 52.3%). Discussion: The study discovered a significant relationship (p0.05) between gender, age, BMI, waist circumference, and daily fruit intake. Moreover, neither daily fruit nor vegetable intake predicted changes in BMI. Conclusion: This study found that the consumption of fruits and vegetables among postgraduate students was unsatisfactory and lower than recommended guidelines.
Health awareness promotion among farming communities are important for a sustainable agriculture activities. A cross-sectional study was conducted to assess health status among farming communities in Cameron Highlands, Pahang (n = 61) and Bachok and Pasir Puteh, Kelantan (n = 143). Mobile Health Screening Programme composed of assessment of blood glucose, blood cholesterol, haemoglobin, blood pressure, pterygium, lung function and nerve conductive velocity was utilized. Our results indicate that the percentage of Cameron Highland’s farmers with hyperglycaemia, systolic hypertension, diastolic hypertension and anaemia were 8.2%, 14.8%, 11.5% and 8.2%, respectively. However, higher percentage of farmers in Bachok and Pasir Puteh, Kelantan with hyperglycaemia (32.8%), hypercholesterolaemia (83%), anaemia (24.2%) and systolic hypertension (41.9%) were observed. Pterygium was positive for 88.6% of farmers in Cameron Highlands and 94.4% in Bachok and Pasir Puteh. Lung function test shows that 61.7% and 11.4% of farmers in Cameron Highlands had restrictive and obstructive lung, respectively. In Bachok and Pasir Puteh, a total of 19.8%, 55.5% and 23.9% of farmers were found to have obstructive, restrictive and combined obstructive and restrictive lung, respectively. Current Perception Threshold (CPT) value which indicate nerve conductive velocity were significantly increased (p < 0.05) among Cameron Highland’s farmers for both median and peroneal nerve at all frequencies (5 Hz, 250 Hz and 2000 Hz). In Bachok and Pasir Puteh, the values of the CPT for median nerve was significantly increased (p < 0.05) for all frequencies (5, 250 and 2000 Hz). Meanwhile, a signifi cant increased (p < 0.05) was observed for the CPT values for peroneal nerve at the frequencies of 250 and 2000 Hz as compared to control groups. In conclusion, analysis revealed different health problem among the studied farming communities which could be influenced by the differences in farming practices. Thus, employed Mobile Health Screening Programme offers a monitoring approach that could highlight the need for suitable health services and awareness programmes for different farming communities.
Pendedahan terhadap pestisid dapat menyebabkan penurunan paras unsur surih di dalam badan manusia. Unsur surih memainkan peranan penting dalam metabolisma tubuh. Kajian ini dijalankan untuk mengkaji paras unsur surih selenium, zink dan kromium dalam kalangan pesawah yang terdedah kepada pestisid di Wilayah I, MADA, Perlis. Kajian keratan rentas ini melibatkan 70 orang pesawah dan 57 orang yang tinggal di perkampungan nelayan sebagai kumpulan kawalan yang berumur di antara 21 hingga 80 tahun. Maklumat sosiodemografi pesawah dilakukan melalui temuduga borang soal selidik yang telah divalidasi. Pemeriksaan tekanan darah dan glukosa darah pesawah dilakukan. Paras selenium, zink dan kromium sampel kuku dan rambut dianalisis dengan menggunakan kaedah penghadaman asid dan mesin Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS). Hasil kajian mendapati bahawa paras selenium pada rambut (5.11 ± 17.05 μg/L) dan kuku (4.92 ± 2.17 μg/L) adalah lebih rendah secara signifikannya (p < 0.05) berbanding paras selenium pada rambut (15.67 ± 10.59 μg/L) dan kuku (6.67 ± 2.81 μg/L) kumpulan kawalan. Paras kromium pada rambut (31.83 ± 15.17 μg/L) dan kuku (87.64 ± 23.30 μg/L) kumpulan pesawah juga didapati lebih rendah secara signifikannya (p < 0.05) berbanding paras kromium pada rambut (85.19 ± 56.90 μg/L) dan kuku (99.36 ± 56.89 μg/L) pada kumpulan kawalan. Walau bagaimanapun, tiada perbezaan paras unsur surih yang signifikan (p > 0.05) menurut tempoh pendedahan pestisid. Kesimpulannya, paras selenium dan kromium pada kuku dan rambut pesawah yang terdedah kepada pestisid adalah lebih rendah berbanding kumpulan komuniti nelayan.
Pesticide exposure may cause genotoxic effects by inducing the formation of micronucleus (Mn). Mn are fragments of chromosomes that remains after cells division. The increase in Mn may increase the risk of cancer formation. Our study aimed to determine the effects of lifestyle and pesticide exposure on the formation of Mn in epithelial cells from buccal swabs among paddy farmers in Malaysia. About 40 farmers who were exposed to pesticides were chosen as subjects and 30 personnels whose not directly exposed to pesticides, were chosen as the control group. Demographic and anthropometric data were obtained from questionnaires developed. Analysis of Mn formation was done using Giemsa staining (10% v/v) and the frequency of Mn formation was scored from 1000 cells per sample. Kruskal-Wallis test done between Mn frequency with age group showed a significant increase (p < 0.05) in Mn frequency in farmers as compared to the control in the age group of 30-39 , 40-49 years, and 50-59 years. Significant increased (p < 0.05) were observed between Mn frequency groups of normal BMI, pre-obese, and grade 1 obese as compared to control. Significant increase of Mn frequency (p < 0.01) was also seen among smokers and farmer’s group (15.39 ± 3.34) as compared to controls (4.76 ± 1.26). The maximum numbers of Mn found in farmers are 7 Mn per cell whereas for control group is only 3 Mn. However, most farmers had only 1 Mn (81.75 ± 6.42%) and 2 Mn (15.28 ± 5.14%). Mn frequency with the duration of exposure to pesticides in a month and the use of PPE revealed no significant difference (p = 0.27). In conclusion, the increased frequency of Mn was influenced by age, gender, BMI and smoking status of farmers besides commonly repeated duration of exposures and the use of PPE. Further studies are needed to analyze the causes of an increased in Mn among farmers.
Objective: The objective of this study was to assess the relationship between stress score and body mass index (BMI) of students of Science in Kuala Lumpur. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out among 126 students. Data about stress score were collected using a questionnaire, the Student-Life Stress Inventory (SLSI) Data about BMI were calculated from height and weight of the respondents. Results: A total of 117 (92.85%) out of 126 students had responded. The mean difference of stress score among first, second and third year students were 87.6 ± 17.0, 83.4 ± 16.9 and 86.7 ± 15.4 respectively. The mean difference of stress scores between the Bumiputra and non-Bumiputra students were 87.9 ± 16.5 and 83.2 ± 15.9 .The mean of body mass Index(BMI) between first, second and third year students were 21.0 ± 3.5, 20.3 ± 2.7 and 21.8 ± 4.3 respectively. Conclusions: This study showed that the stress level is higher in first year, female and bumiputra student. There was no significant relationship between stress score and BMI.