Displaying all 16 publications

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  1. Tam CL, Bonn G, Yeoh SH, Wong CP
    Front Psychol, 2014;5:1328.
    PMID: 25520676 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01328
    The National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS, 2011), estimates that the number of Malaysian adults suffering from type 2 diabetes has increased from 8.3 to 31.2% since 1996. This study is a preliminary investigation of possible factors contributing to this epidemic. Knowledge of diabetes, health locus of control, diet and exercise habits, as well as family history, education level and other demographic factors to better understand the correlates of risky and healthy behaviors. This was done as part of a larger initiative to improve prevention efforts. Questionnaires were completed by 770 individuals from three Malaysian states: Selangor, Penang, and Terengganu. Findings showed that people with better health knowledge and those who have a family history of type 2 diabetes were more likely to have healthy diets. Also, health knowledge related to lower alcohol consumption. Participants with diabetic family members, however, also reported higher levels of stress. Counterintuitively, higher educational levels, higher internal locus of control, better health knowledge, as well as a family history of diabetes all correlated with lower levels of physical activity. Thus, it is suggested that, while increasing health knowledge will be important in addressing the type 2 diabetes epidemic in Malaysia, especially in relation to diet, other cultural factors, specifically norms related to exercise and physical activity, also need to be addressed if the spread of type 2 diabetes is to be addressed over the long term.
  2. Yeoh SH, Tam CL, Wong CP, Bonn G
    Front Psychol, 2017;8:1411.
    PMID: 28878710 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01411
    The 2015 National Health and Morbidity Survey estimated that over 29% of the adult population of Malaysia suffers from mental distress, a nearly 3-fold increase from the 10.7% estimated by the NHMS in 1996 pointing to the potential beginnings of a public health crisis. This study aimed to better understand this trend by assessing depressive symptoms and their correlates in a cross-section of Malaysians. Specifically, it assesses stress, perceived locus of control, and various socio-demographic variables as possible predictors of depressive symptoms in the Malaysian context. A total of 728 adults from three Malaysian states (Selangor, Penang, Terengganu) completed Beck's depression inventory as well as several other measures: 10% of respondents reported experiencing severe levels of depressive symptoms, 11% reported moderate and 15% reported mild depressive symptoms indicating that Malaysians are experiencing high levels of emotional distress. When controlling for the influence of other variables, depressive symptoms were predictably related to higher levels of stress and lower levels of internal locus of control. Ethnic Chinese Malaysians, housewives and those engaged in professional-type occupations reported less depressive symptoms. Business owners reported more depressive symptoms. Further research should look more into Malaysians' subjective experience of stress and depression as well as explore environmental factors that may be contributing to mental health issues. It is argued that future policies can be designed to better balance individual mental health needs with economic growth.
  3. Rosdinom R, Ng IT, Teh EE, Norhayati A, Ng CG, Yeoh SH, et al.
    Clin Ter, 2014;165(6):287-93.
    PMID: 25524183 DOI: 10.7417/CT.2014.1770
    OBJECTIVES: There is a lack of local instruments to assess behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD). This 2-stage cross-sectional study was aimed at validating a Malay translated version of the Neuropsychiaric Inventory (MvNPI).

    MATERIALS AND METHODS: It was conducted on a selected group of 138 elderly outpatients with dementia and their caregivers in Hospital Pulau Pinang. Severity of dementia was assessed using the Malay-translated version of Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE). The original NPI was translated and then back-translated before it was pilot-tested. The MvNPI was administered twice, a week apart on the same caregiver by the same investigator.

    RESULTS: The individual items and total scale score of MvNPI had high internal consistency, with Corrected Item-Total Correlation ranging from satisfactory to good (0.41 to 0.77). The Cronbach's alpha for all the NPI domains showed high internal consistency (0.83), and subtotal for severity and distress scores were perfect (0.998 to 1.00). There was no significant difference between test-retest mean scores (p>0.05) and their correlations were perfect (0.996 to 1.00). Content validity indicated mild and inverse relationship between MMSE scores and severity, and distress score (-0.281 and -0.268, respectively, with p<0.001). Discriminant validity calculated using Mann-Whitney U test was found to be significant (p<0.001) in differentiating severity of cognitive impairment. Factor analysis revealed four possible components existed in MvNPI.

    CONCLUSIONS: The MvNPI is a valid and reliable tool for assessing BPSD among Malay speaking populations of Malaysia and its neighbouring South East Asian countries.

    Study site: Hospital Pulau Pinang
  4. Yeoh SH, Razali R, Sidi H, Razi ZR, Midin M, Nik Jaafar NR, et al.
    Compr Psychiatry, 2014 Jan;55 Suppl 1:S1-6.
    PMID: 23116967 DOI: 10.1016/j.comppsych.2012.09.002
    The study aimed to measure the relationship of sexual functioning between male and female partners, who sought infertility treatment in a university hospital setting in Malaysia.
  5. Külheim C, Yeoh SH, Wallis IR, Laffan S, Moran GF, Foley WJ
    New Phytol, 2011 Sep;191(4):1041-1053.
    PMID: 21609332 DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-8137.2011.03769.x
    Eucalyptus is characterized by high foliar concentrations of plant secondary metabolites with marked qualitative and quantitative variation within a single species. Secondary metabolites in eucalypts are important mediators of a diverse community of herbivores. We used a candidate gene approach to investigate genetic associations between 195 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from 24 candidate genes and 33 traits related to secondary metabolites in the Tasmanian Blue Gum (Eucalyptus globulus). We discovered 37 significant associations (false discovery rate (FDR) Q < 0.05) across 11 candidate genes and 19 traits. The effects of SNPs on phenotypic variation were within the expected range (0.018 < r(2) < 0.061) for forest trees. Whereas most marker effects were nonadditive, two alleles from two consecutive genes in the methylerythritol phosphate pathway (MEP) showed additive effects. This study successfully links allelic variants to ecologically important phenotypes which can have a large impact on the entire community. It is one of very few studies to identify the genetic variants of a foundation tree that influences ecosystem function.
  6. Wee LH, Ibrahim N, Wahab S, Visvalingam U, Yeoh SH, Siau CS
    Omega (Westport), 2020 Dec;82(2):323-345.
    PMID: 30482086 DOI: 10.1177/0030222818814331
    This study explored health-care workers' perception of patients' suicide intention and their understanding of factors leading to particular interpretations. Semistructured face-to-face in-depth interviews were conducted with 32 health-care workers from a general hospital in Klang Valley, Malaysia. Interview data were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using the interpretative phenomenological analysis. The health-care workers were found to have four types of perceptions: to end life, not to end life, ambivalence about intention, and an evolving understanding of intention. Factors leading to their perceptions of patients' suicide intention were patient demographics, health status, severity of ideation/attempt, suicide method, history of treatment, moral character, communication of suicide intention, affective/cognitive status, availability of social support, and health-care workers' limited knowledge of patients' condition/situation. Insufficient knowledge and negative attitudes toward suicidal patients led to risk minimization and empathic failure, although most health-care workers used the correct parameters in determining suicide intention.
  7. Siau CS, Wee LH, Adnan TH, Yeoh SH, Perialathan K, Wahab S
    J Nurses Prof Dev, 2019 2 12;35(2):98-103.
    PMID: 30741918 DOI: 10.1097/NND.0000000000000520
    The aim of this study was to examine Malaysian nurses' attitudes toward suicide. Nurses from five hospitals participated in this study. Studying the attitudes of nurses toward suicidal patients and its application to nursing professional development practitioners is an important topic. Most nurses were agreeable to assuming responsibility and to be trained in suicide prevention. Suicide-related training should focus on improving the attitudes of nonpsychiatric nurses, those with no experience in caring for suicidal patients, and those with less nursing experience, all of whom reported more negative attitudes toward suicidal patients.
  8. Siau CS, Wee LH, Wahab S, Visvalingam U, Yeoh SH, Halim NAA, et al.
    J Res Nurs, 2021 Dec;26(8):723-740.
    PMID: 35251280 DOI: 10.1177/17449871211008520
    BACKGROUND: There has been mixed findings on whether a healthcare workers' religious beliefs contribute positively or negatively to their attitudes towards suicidal patients.

    AIMS: This study aims to explore qualitatively the influence of religious/spiritual beliefs on healthcare workers' attitudes towards suicide and suicidal patients in the culturally heterogeneous Malaysian population.

    METHODS: Thirty-one healthcare workers from diverse religious backgrounds, professions and medical disciplines were interviewed. Thematic analysis revealed the centrality of religion in determining healthcare workers' acceptability of suicide, specific religious beliefs that influenced their views on the right-to-die issue, perceptions of the suicidal patient's religiousness/spirituality, and the aspects and extent of religious relevance in professional philosophy and practice.

    RESULTS: Healthcare workers who could perceive the multifactorial nature of suicide causation had a more empathetic response. There were high levels of paternalism in the care of suicidal patients, involving unsolicited religious/spiritual advice practised as a form of suicide deterrent and social support.

    CONCLUSIONS: The formal integration of religious/spiritual practices into the professional care of suicidal patients was indicated.

  9. Kwong QB, Ong AL, Teh CK, Chew FT, Tammi M, Mayes S, et al.
    Sci Rep, 2017 06 06;7(1):2872.
    PMID: 28588233 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-02602-6
    Genomic selection (GS) uses genome-wide markers to select individuals with the desired overall combination of breeding traits. A total of 1,218 individuals from a commercial population of Ulu Remis x AVROS (UR x AVROS) were genotyped using the OP200K array. The traits of interest included: shell-to-fruit ratio (S/F, %), mesocarp-to-fruit ratio (M/F, %), kernel-to-fruit ratio (K/F, %), fruit per bunch (F/B, %), oil per bunch (O/B, %) and oil per palm (O/P, kg/palm/year). Genomic heritabilities of these traits were estimated to be in the range of 0.40 to 0.80. GS methods assessed were RR-BLUP, Bayes A (BA), Cπ (BC), Lasso (BL) and Ridge Regression (BRR). All methods resulted in almost equal prediction accuracy. The accuracy achieved ranged from 0.40 to 0.70, correlating with the heritability of traits. By selecting the most important markers, RR-BLUP B has the potential to outperform other methods. The marker density for certain traits can be further reduced based on the linkage disequilibrium (LD). Together with in silico breeding, GS is now being used in oil palm breeding programs to hasten parental palm selection.
  10. Yeoh SH, Satake A, Numata S, Ichie T, Lee SL, Basherudin N, et al.
    Mol Ecol, 2017 Oct;26(19):5074-5085.
    PMID: 28749031 DOI: 10.1111/mec.14257
    Elucidating the physiological mechanisms of the irregular yet concerted flowering rhythm of mass flowering tree species in the tropics requires long-term monitoring of flowering phenology, exogenous and endogenous environmental factors, as well as identifying interactions and dependencies among these factors. To investigate the proximate factors for floral initiation of mast seeding trees in the tropics, we monitored the expression dynamics of two key flowering genes, meteorological conditions and endogenous resources over two flowering events of Shorea curtisii and Shorea leprosula in the Malay Peninsula. Comparisons of expression dynamics of genes studied indicated functional conservation of FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) and LEAFY (LFY) in Shorea. The genes were highly expressed at least 1 month before anthesis for both species. A mathematical model considering the synergistic effect of cool temperature and drought on activation of the flowering gene was successful in predicting the observed gene expression patterns. Requirement of both cool temperature and drought for floral transition suggested by the model implies that flowering phenologies of these species are sensitive to climate change. Our molecular phenology approach in the tropics sheds light on the conserved role of flowering genes in plants inhabiting different climate zones and can be widely applied to dissect the flowering processes in other plant species.
  11. Kwong QB, Teh CK, Ong AL, Chew FT, Mayes S, Kulaveerasingam H, et al.
    BMC Genet, 2017 Dec 11;18(1):107.
    PMID: 29228905 DOI: 10.1186/s12863-017-0576-5
    BACKGROUND: Genomic selection (GS) uses genome-wide markers as an attempt to accelerate genetic gain in breeding programs of both animals and plants. This approach is particularly useful for perennial crops such as oil palm, which have long breeding cycles, and for which the optimal method for GS is still under debate. In this study, we evaluated the effect of different marker systems and modeling methods for implementing GS in an introgressed dura family derived from a Deli dura x Nigerian dura (Deli x Nigerian) with 112 individuals. This family is an important breeding source for developing new mother palms for superior oil yield and bunch characters. The traits of interest selected for this study were fruit-to-bunch (F/B), shell-to-fruit (S/F), kernel-to-fruit (K/F), mesocarp-to-fruit (M/F), oil per palm (O/P) and oil-to-dry mesocarp (O/DM). The marker systems evaluated were simple sequence repeats (SSRs) and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). RR-BLUP, Bayesian A, B, Cπ, LASSO, Ridge Regression and two machine learning methods (SVM and Random Forest) were used to evaluate GS accuracy of the traits.

    RESULTS: The kinship coefficient between individuals in this family ranged from 0.35 to 0.62. S/F and O/DM had the highest genomic heritability, whereas F/B and O/P had the lowest. The accuracies using 135 SSRs were low, with accuracies of the traits around 0.20. The average accuracy of machine learning methods was 0.24, as compared to 0.20 achieved by other methods. The trait with the highest mean accuracy was F/B (0.28), while the lowest were both M/F and O/P (0.18). By using whole genomic SNPs, the accuracies for all traits, especially for O/DM (0.43), S/F (0.39) and M/F (0.30) were improved. The average accuracy of machine learning methods was 0.32, compared to 0.31 achieved by other methods.

    CONCLUSION: Due to high genomic resolution, the use of whole-genome SNPs improved the efficiency of GS dramatically for oil palm and is recommended for dura breeding programs. Machine learning slightly outperformed other methods, but required parameters optimization for GS implementation.

  12. Siau CS, Wee LH, Yacob S, Yeoh SH, Binti Adnan TH, Haniff J, et al.
    Acad Psychiatry, 2017 Aug;41(4):503-509.
    PMID: 28168406 DOI: 10.1007/s40596-017-0661-0
    OBJECTIVES: This research is aimed to examine the attitude of health-care workers toward suicidal patients in Malaysian hospitals, comparing responses from psychiatric and non-psychiatric workers, and to identify specific needs in suicide prevention and management training.

    METHOD: This is a multi-site cross-sectional study. The authors conducted a survey based on a translated self-administered questionnaire to participants from seven core hospital departments.

    RESULTS: While most health-care workers regardless of department and specialty took their duty to prevent suicide seriously, a large majority of them expressed negative attitudes such as finding suicidal behavior irritating, and more than half believed suicidal attempts were a way of making others sorry. However, psychiatric workers were less likely to have judgmental attitudes that included believing suicide attempters as being selfish or trying to get sympathy from others.

    CONCLUSIONS: As there were more similarities than differences in health-care workers' attitudes toward suicide, recommendations on basic and continuous suicide prevention and management training among hospital workers were made. The interventions focused on improving knowledge, affective, and skill-based areas that were aimed to correct the wrongful understanding of and to minimize the negative attitudes toward suicidal individuals indicated by the study results.

  13. Siau CS, Chan CMH, Wee LH, Wahab S, Visvalingam U, Chen WS, et al.
    Omega (Westport), 2023 Jun;87(2):469-484.
    PMID: 34096373 DOI: 10.1177/00302228211021746
    We examined whether burnout, depression, anxiety, stress, lifetime suicidal ideation, self-efficacy in preventing suicide and demographic factors predicted the understanding of and willingness to help suicidal patients among hospital healthcare workers. A total of 368 healthcare workers from the major surgical and medical departments in a general hospital setting were recruited. Participants responded to the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale-21, Self-efficacy in Suicide Prevention, and Understanding Suicide Attempt Patient Scale. Those from the psychiatric department, with higher suicide prevention self-efficacy, and lower personal accomplishment indicated more understanding and helpful attitudes; doctors, depressed and anxious healthcare workers reported less understanding and helpful attitudes. Suicide prevention efforts must be conducted in tandem with equipping and supporting the healthcare workers who manage suicidal patients.
  14. Suhaimi AH, Kobayashi MJ, Satake A, Ng CC, Lee SL, Muhammad N, et al.
    PeerJ, 2023;11:e16368.
    PMID: 38047035 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.16368
    Climatic factors have commonly been attributed as the trigger of general flowering, a unique community-level mass flowering phenomenon involving most dipterocarp species that forms the foundation of Southeast Asian tropical rainforests. This intriguing flowering event is often succeeded by mast fruiting, which provides a temporary yet substantial burst of food resources for animals, particularly frugivores. However, the physiological mechanism that triggers general flowering, particularly in dipterocarp species, is not well understood largely due to its irregular and unpredictable occurrences in the tall and dense forests. To shed light on this mechanism, we employed ecological transcriptomic analyses on an RNA-seq dataset of a general flowering species, Shorea curtisii (Dipterocarpaceae), sequenced from leaves and buds collected at multiple vegetative and flowering phenological stages. We assembled 64,219 unigenes from the transcriptome of which 1,730 and 3,559 were differentially expressed in the leaf and the bud, respectively. Differentially expressed unigene clusters were found to be enriched with homologs of Arabidopsis thaliana genes associated with response to biotic and abiotic stresses, nutrient level, and hormonal treatments. When combined with rainfall data, our transcriptome data reveals that the trees were responding to a brief period of drought prior to the elevated expression of key floral promoters and followed by differential expression of unigenes that indicates physiological changes associated with the transition from vegetative to reproductive stages. Our study is timely for a representative general flowering dipterocarp species that occurs in forests that are under the constant threat of deforestation and climate change as it pinpoints important climate sensitive and flowering-related homologs and offers a glimpse into the cascade of gene expression before and after the onset of floral initiation.
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