Objectives: We explored the perceptions and practices related to the use of radioprotective garments among medical radiation workers in public hospitals, and sought to understand the reasons for non-adherence.
Design and setting: A qualitative approach was applied by conducting face-to-face in-depth interviews with 18 medical radiation workers from three university hospitals using a semi-structured interview guide.
Results: Five themes emerged with respect to perceptions on the use of radioprotective garments: (i) the dilemmas in practising radiation protection, (ii) indication of workers' credibility, (iii) physical appearance of radioprotective garments, (iv) practicality of radioprotective garment use, and (v) impact on workflow. Actual lack of radioprotective garment use was attributed to inadequate number of thyroid shield and other garments, radioprotective garments' unsightly appearance including being dirty and defective, impracticality of using radioprotective garments for some nuclear medicine procedures, disruption of workflow because of workers' limited movements, attitudes of workers, and organisational influences.
Conclusion: Medical radiation workers demonstrated a definitive practice of using radioprotective aprons, but often neglected to use thyroid shields and other garments. Availability and hygiene are reported as the core issues, while unclear guidelines on practical use of radioprotective garments appear to lead to confusion among medical radiation workers. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first qualitative study of its kind from a middle-income Asian setting.
METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among N = 271 primary care physicians from 86 primary care practices throughout two states in Malaysia. Questionnaires used were specifically developed based on the TPB, consisting of both direct and indirect measures related to the provision of sickness leave. Questionnaire validity was established through factor analysis and the determination of internal consistency between theoretically related constructs. The temporal stability of the indirect measures was determined via the test-retest correlation analysis. Structural equation modelling was conducted to determine the strength of predictors related to intentions.
RESULTS: The mean scores for intention to provide patients with sickness was low. The Cronbach α value for the direct measures was good: overall physician intent to provide sick leave (0.77), physician attitude towards prescribing sick leave for patients (0.77) and physician attitude in trusting the intention of patients seeking sick leave (0.83). The temporal stability of the indirect measures of the questionnaire was satisfactory with significant correlation between constructs separated by an interval of two weeks (p
OBJECTIVE: This study examined the performance of 3 ML algorithms in comparison with logistic regression (LR) to predict overweight or obesity status among working adults in Malaysia.
METHODS: Using data from 16,860 participants (mean age 34.2, SD 9.0 years; n=6904, 41% male; n=7048, 41.8% with overweight or obesity) in the Malaysia's Healthiest Workplace by AIA Vitality 2019 survey, predictor variables, including sociodemographic characteristics, job characteristics, health and weight perceptions, and lifestyle-related factors, were modeled using the extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost), random forest (RF), and support vector machine (SVM) algorithms, as well as LR, to predict overweight or obesity status based on a BMI cutoff of 25 kg/m2.
RESULTS: The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.81 (95% CI 0.79-0.82), 0.80 (95% CI 0.79-0.81), 0.80 (95% CI 0.78-0.81), and 0.78 (95% CI 0.77-0.80) for the XGBoost, RF, SVM, and LR models, respectively. Weight satisfaction was the top predictor, and ethnicity, age, and gender were also consistent predictor variables of overweight or obesity status in all models.
CONCLUSIONS: Based on multi-domain online workplace survey data, this study produced predictive models that identified overweight or obesity status with moderate to high accuracy. The performance of both ML-based and logistic regression models were comparable when predicting obesity among working adults in Malaysia.
AIMS: To determine levels of work engagement and to identify psychological and work-related characteristics predicting work engagement in employees in Malaysia.
METHODS: We recruited 5235 employees from 47 public and private organizations in Malaysia who responded to an online health survey. We assessed work engagement with the 9-item Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES-9) and psychological distress using the 6-item Kessler scale. We performed multiple linear regression to determine predictors of work engagement.
RESULTS: Employee mean age was 33.8 years (standard deviation [SD] ± 8.8). The mean work engagement score on the UWES-9 was 3.53 (SD ± 0.94). Eleven of 18 variables on multiple regression predicted work engagement, F(18, 4925) = 69.02, P < 0.001, R2 = 0.201. Factors that predicted higher work engagement were age, marital status, education level, job type, job permanency, longer sleep duration, lower psychological distress and no history of workplace bullying.
CONCLUSIONS: Key factors associated with poorer work engagement in Malaysian employees include inadequate sleep, psychological distress and a history of workplace bullying. These are modifiable factors that individuals and employers can target to improve work engagement, ideally tailored according to occupational type.
Materials and Methods: A total of 11,356 working adults (≥18 years) were recruited from a cross-sectional online health and work survey. Sleep duration was self-reported and was categorised as insufficient sleep (<7 h) and sufficient sleep (≥7 h) based on the National Sleep Guidelines' daily sleep time recommendation for adults. The 10-item Kessler scale was used to assess psychological distress levels (cutoff score ≥20). Bivariate and multivariable regression analyses were performed to examine the factors associated with insufficient sleep.
Results: The mean age of the participants was 35.7 years (standard deviation, SD±9.2). There were more female (n=6613; 58.2%) respondents. The mean sleep duration was 6.49 h (SD±1.10). A total of 6212 individuals (54.7%) reported getting <7 h of sleep daily. After adjusting for gender, marital status and educational attainment, older age (odds ratio, OR=2.22, 95% confidence interval, 95% CI: 1.72-2.86), ever smoking (OR=1.38, 95% CI: 1.25-1.53), and high psychological distress (OR=1.33, 95% CI: 1.17-1.53) were found to be associated with insufficient sleep. Factors associated with sleep duration of <7 h per night included having children (OR=1.35, 95% CI: 1.21-1.50), lifestyle factors (OR=1.38, 95% CI: 1.25-1.53), poor sleeping conditions (OR=1.21, 95% CI: 1.07-1.36), and mental health issues (OR=1.32, 95% CI: 1.12-1.54).
Discussion and Conclusion: More than half of the participants reported sleep insufficiency. Older age, ever smoking, and high levels of psychological distress were significantly associated with insufficient sleep. Our findings recognise sleep as an emerging public health issue. Smoking cessation programmes and addressing high psychological distress may be beneficial to improve sleep.
METHOD: Participants of Juara Sihat (n=55) were followed-up at 18 months after completion of the intervention. Juara Sihat intervention was implemented over 12 weeks and focused on four key components: (i) five one-hour nutrition education classes, (ii) four one-hour physical activity education sessions, (iii) family involvement, and (iv) empowerment of Parents and Teachers Association. Anthropometric variables (body mass index, body fat percentage and waist circumference) were measured and physical activity level was evaluated by using Physical Activity Questionnaire for Children (PAQ-C) at baseline (P0), immediately upon completion of intervention (P1), at three-month post-intervention (P2), and at 18-month postintervention (P3). Analyses of repeated measures analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) with intention-to-treat principle were applied.
RESULTS: Sustained effects were found in BMI-for-age z-score which showed a reduction (P0 2.41±0.84 vs P3 2.27±0.81) and physical activity level which showed positive improvements (P0 2.46±0.62 vs P3 2.87±0.76) at 18 months after intervention was completed. Body fat and waist circumference had increased over the same time period.
CONCLUSION: Overall, this study successfully demonstrated sustained intervention effects of Juara Sihat intervention on BMI-for-age z-score and physical activity, but not on body fat percentage and waist circumference.
METHODS: The Question, Persuade, Refer program materials were translated and adapted for implementation in the hospital setting for nonpsychiatric health professionals. There were 159 (mean age = 35.75 years; SD = 12.26) participants in this study. Most participants were female (84.9%), staff/community nurses (52.2%), who worked in the general medical department (30.2%) and had no experience managing suicidal patients (64.2%). Intervention participants (n = 53) completed a survey questionnaire at pretraining, immediately after training, and after three months. Control participants (n = 106) were not exposed to the training program and completed the same questionnaire at baseline and three months later.
RESULTS: Significant improvement occurred among intervention participants in terms of perceived knowledge, self-efficacy, and understanding of/willingness to help suicidal patients immediately after training and when compared with the control participants 3 months later. Improvements in declarative knowledge were not maintained at the 3-month follow-up.
DISCUSSION: This study confirmed the short-term effectiveness of the gatekeeper training program. Gatekeeper suicide training is recommended for implementation for nonpsychiatric health professionals nationwide.
METHODS: Cross sectional analyses of N = 345 adult cancer survivors (5 years post cancer diagnosis) attending follow-ups at University Malaya Medical Centre, Malaysia. Face-to face-interviews were conducted using the 30-item Cancer Health Literacy Test and the Patient-Practitioner Orientation Scale to determine preference for patient-centered care.
RESULTS: Cancer survivors' preference for patient-centered care was associated with a higher cancer health literacy score, higher educational level, being employed, breast cancer diagnosis, and not desiring psychological support [F (14, 327) = 11.25, p
METHODS: This study employed cross-sectional, self-reported survey methodology. We used the 6-item Kessler screening scale (K6) to assess psychological distress (cutoff score ≥ 13, range 0-24, with higher scores indicating greater psychological distress). Participants self-reported their perceptions of whether they had been bullied at work and how frequently this occurred. A multivariate logistic regression was conducted with ever bullying and never bullying as dichotomous categories.
RESULTS: There were a total of 5235 participants (62.3% female). Participant ages ranged from 18 to 85, mean ± standard deviation (M ± SD): 33.88 ± 8.83. A total of 2045 (39.1%) participants reported ever being bullied. Of these, 731 (14.0%) reported being subject to at least occasional bullying, while another 194 (3.7%) reported it as a common occurrence. Across all income strata, mean scores for psychological distress were significantly higher for ever bullied employees (M ± SD: 8.69 ± 4.83) compared to those never bullied (M ± SD: 5.75 ± 4.49). Regression analysis indicated significant associations (p
METHODS: University and secondary school students from low-income households (N = 202) were involved in this cross-sectional study. Participants completed the Depression Literacy Questionnaire (D-Lit), General Help Seeking Questionnaire (GHSQ), Mental Help Seeking Attitudes Scale (MHSAS), Self-Stigma of Seeking Help Scale (SSOSH), and Beliefs toward Mental Illness (BMI).
RESULTS: Mental help-seeking attitude had a significant relationship with self-stigma on seeking help (r = -.258, p