PIP: The effectiveness and impact of the Population and Family Health Project in the rural areas of Malaysia is evaluated. A total of 790 women who delivered during the past 3 years from the time of the survey, were identified from 2,013 women aged 15-49 years, during the 2nd Family and Health Survey (1979) in Peninsular Malaysia. The rural health districts which were selected by random sampling include: Perlis, Kubang Pasu, Sebeang Perai Selatan, Kuala Selangor, Hulu Langat, Melaka Utara, Kota Bharu/Tumpat, and Pasir Mas. The pattern of maternal care during pregnancy, delivery and puerperium are examined with respect to selected variables. These women are further classified into 2 groups by type of birth attendant at delivery and these 2 groups are also examined in relation to selected socioeconomic variables. The major proportion of women had their 1st antenatal visit during the 2nd and 3rd trimester of pregnancy. The highest % (28.3%) of 1st antenatal visits occurred during the 5th month of pregnancy. Use of a trained medical practitioner is preferred (82.5%), while only 17.5% of women preferred the services of traditonal birth attendants. Women in this latter group had less education and were in lower income groups, than the former group of women. Majority of women in all ethnic and age groups had no postnatal check after their last childbirth.
Several new concepts are used to describe contraceptive use histories for nearly 1200 women in Peninsular Malaysia. These histories are summarized by 81 episode histories. Transition matrices provide useful summaries of the changes women make in their contraceptive practice from one pregnancy interval to the next. Data from the mid-1940s to mid-1970s, during which period there was a dramatic increase in contraceptive use, reveal considerable inertia in individual couples' contraceptive practice. Persistence with a method was greater the less effective the method: while 86% of couples using no method in one interval used no method in the next, only 56% of couples using the pill in one interval also used it in the next. Virtually all transitions are of three types: continuation with the same method, a change from no method to some method, or a change from some method to no method. For only 1% of all pregnancies did couples use one contraceptive method before a pregnancy and a different method after the pregnancy. Differences are examined by calendar year and education.
Quality and food safety are of paramount importance to the palm oil industry. In this work, we investigated the practicability of ethylene gas exogenous application on post-harvested oil palm fruit bunches to improve the crude palm oil (CPO) quality. The bunches were first exposed to ethylene gas for 24 hr to induce abscission of palm fruits from bunches. The detached fruits were then subjected to heat treatment, mechanical extraction, clarification and drying to produce CPO. Critical quality parameters of CPO produced, that is free fatty acid, deterioration of the bleachability index and triacylglycerol showed improvement with ethylene gas treatment. Contaminant content that is phosphorus, chloride, iron, and copper also showed a reduction in the CPO derived from ethylene-treated bunches. These findings corresponded with low levels of contaminants such as 3-monochloropropane-1,2-diol esters and glycidyl esters in refined oil. The implementation strategy and practicability of this method is herein proposed and discussed. Ethylene application not only improves the CPO quality, but could potentially enhance the process sustainability of palm oil mills.