Introduction: Chronic musculoskeletal pain is a common disabling condition among older adults with the major- ity, remain undertreated. This study aimed to determine the uptake of non-pharmacological treatment for chronic musculoskeletal pain among older adults and the associated factors. Methods: A stratified sampling proportionate to size with individual clinics as the strata were used to recruit 276 respondents from six public health clinics in Petaling district, one of the most aged districts in the state of Selangor, Malaysia. Based on the proportion calculat- ed, eligible older adults were selected by systematic random sampling from the registration list. Data was collected using a pre-tested and validated questionnaire through a face-to-face interview with respondents. The questionnaire comprised of seven sections, namely, socio-demographic, comorbidity, depression, pain severity, treatment options, attitude towards chronic pain and chronic musculoskeletal pain. Inferential analysis was conducted using Chi- Square (X2) and Fisher’s Exact Tests. The P value of < 0.05 regarded as statistically significant. Results: A total of 242 (87.7%) of the respondents had chronic musculoskeletal pain, in which 235 (85.1%) were treated with non-pharma- cological treatments. The commonly used non-pharmacological treatments were exercise (67.8%), biological-based therapies (40.9%) and massage (33.7%). The uptake of non-pharmacological treatment for chronic musculoskeletal pain among older adults was significantly associated with the presence of diabetes. Conclusion: The findings re- vealed the remarkably high uptake of non-pharmacological treatment among older adults who experienced chronic musculoskeletal pain which was significantly associated with diabetes and the presence of other diseases like high blood pressure, osteoarthritis, back pain and rheumatic arthritis.
Referring to the existing model that considers the image boundary as the image background,
the model is still not able to produce an optimum detection. This paper is introducing
the combination features at the boundary known as boundary components affinity that is
capable to produce an optimum measure on the image background. It consists of contrast,
spatial location, force interaction and boundary ratio that contribute to a novel boundary
connectivity measure. The integrated features are capable to produce clearer background
with minimum unwanted foreground patches compared to the ground truth. The extracted
boundary features are integrated as the boundary components affinity. These features were
used for measuring the image background through its boundary connectivity to obtain the
final salient object detection. Using the verified datasets, the performance of the proposed
model was measured and compared with the 4 state-of-art models. In addition, the model
performance was tested on the close contrast images. The detection performance was
compared and analysed based on the precision, recall, true positive rate, false positive
rate, F Measure and Mean Absolute Error (MAE). The model had successfully reduced
the MAE by maximum of 9.4%.
Non-invasive imaging modalities for wound assessment have become increasingly popular over the past
two decades. The wounds can be developed superficially or from within deep tissues, depending on the
nature of the dominant risk factors. Developing a reproducible quantitative method to assess woundhealing
status has demonstrated to be a convoluted task. Advances in High-Frequency Ultrasound (HFU)
skin scanners have expanded their application as they are cost-effective and reproducible diagnostic tools
in dermatology, including for the measurement of skin thickness, the assessment of skin tumours, the
estimation of the volume of melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancers, the visualisation of skin structure
and the monitoring of the healing of acute and chronic wounds. Previous studies have revealed that HFU
images carry dominant parameters and depict the phenomena occurring within deep tissue layers during
the wound-healing process. However, the investigations have mostly focussed on the validation of HFU
images, and few studies have utilised HFU imaging in quantitative assessment of wound generation and
healing. This paper is an introductory review of the
important studies proposed by the researchers in
the context of wound assessment. The principles
of dermasonography are briefly explained,
followed by a review of the relevant literature that
investigated the wound-healing process and tissue
structures within the wound using HFU imaging.
Manual Material Handling (MMH) involves lifting, bending, and twisting motions of the torso. Poor
lifting technique is often considered a major risk factor in low back injury associated with manual lifting
tasks. Currently, there is little work on the effects of lifting on the Malaysian population. The MMH
activities that was designed with the different lifting heights, frequency, weight of loads and the effect
on of biceps and triceps muscle contraction of the subjects during the lifting tasks were studied. The
parameters involved are weight of the loads lifted, height of the loads lifted and lifting frequency as the
independent variables. Whereas the dependent variable is Electromyography (EMG) signal. The weight
loads are varying from 10kg up to 24kg and the heights of the loads travels from the floor to 70cm
and 130cm heights. The frequency of lifting is set to 1 lift and 6 lifts per minute. 14 healthy male and
female subjects were recruited in this study. The questionnaires and consent form were used to identify
the health condition of the subjects before performing the lifting tasks. The EMG activity was recorded
and collected from biceps and triceps muscles using the Shimmer EMG system. This method is used
in determining the maximum acceptable weight limit (MAWL) that can be lifted by the subjects in the
lifting tasks. This research aims to design a lifting equation that suits for Malaysian people. Therefore,
the effects of different manual lifting tasks on Malaysian physiological limits need to be identified.