ABSTRACT
@#Introduction: Prevalence of malnourished children in Putrajaya was unexpectedly high in 2016. This paper describes the study protocol for a case-control study conducted to identify the associated factors of malnutrition among children under 5 years old in Putrajaya. Methods: This study involved two phases. Phase I was ‘screening’ where all children aged 6-59 months in 118 preschools and four government health clinics were measured for their weight and height. The World Health Organization Anthro software was used to determine the nutritional status of these children. Phase II was the ‘interview’ where children from screening were sampled into four pairs of case and control. The optimum sample size for the case of stunted, wasted, underweight, and overweight were 380, 335, 318, and 308, respectively. The same number of controls were recruited. Parents/caregivers of selected children were approached to obtain data on parental factors, children factors, food intake factors, and environmental factors that contributed to malnutrition. Data analysis was performed by multiple logistic regression in SPSS version 26. Results: Screening phase successfully measured 8,261 (50.1%) children from an estimated 16,500 children under 5 years old in Putrajaya. The number of children who were stunted, wasted, underweight, and overweight were 2,105 (25.5%), 512 (6.2%), 1,516 (18.4%), and 248 (3.0%), respectively. As overweight was undersampled, the number of controls for overweight was doubled to increase the power of the study. Parents/caregivers of selected cases and controls were interviewed in their household or any other venues at their convenience. Conclusion: This protocol promises beneficial outputs to stakeholders and policy makers that can be used for combating malnutrition in children.
ABSTRACT
@#Excessive salt intake has been linked to the development of hypertension and non-communicable diseases. This study aims to explore the different types of salt reduction intervention implemented among adults aged ≥18 years and to identify the suitable settings, duration and tools used for effective salt reduction interventions. This review adapted the established structured scoping review framework by Arksey and O’Malley. Related articles from the year 2008 to 2018 were retrieved based on the study objectives using keywords in electronic databases and through a bibliographic search of books, reports, conference proceedings, posters and summaries. Out of 130 potentially relevant full-text articles assessed, 14 articles were included in the review. Suitable salt reduction initiatives for the community who regularly consume home-cooked food are through cooking and usage of a tool such as a salt-restriction spoon, together with awareness on the benefits of salt reduction in their daily diet. Healthy catering initiative should be implemented in the workplace or institution-based settings. Policy development targeting the source of salts such as mandatory usage of salt-substitutes or Front-of-Pack labelling of salt content in all food products suitable for population-level intervention.
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An Analysis of a Survey Questionnaire on health care workers’ knowledge and practices regarding of infection control and complains them to apply universal precautions. Health care workers are at substantial risk of acquiring blood borne pathogen infections through exposure to blood or other products of patients. To assess of infection control among health care workers in Sana'a healthcare centers, Yemen. A cross-sectional study was conducted in the health center to assess knowledge and practices regarding of infection control among 237 health workers in Sana,a city. A structured self-administered questionnaires were used and data was analyzed using SPSS version 20 and the associations were tested with chi-square, with p-value of < 0.05. The health care workers in public centers ware (51.1%) and (48.9%) of them works in private centers. One hundred and seventeen (49.4%) respondents had poor infection control knowledge, 113 (43.5%) had fair knowledge, and 17 (7.2%) had good knowledge. The knowledge was significantly associated with type of center (P < 0.018), such that the public center had the highest proportion with poor knowledge. And nurses and midwife having the highest proportion with fair knowledge of infection control. Eight (3.4%) respondents had a poor practice of universal precautions, 93 (39.2%) had fair practice, and 136 (57.4%) good practice. The practice was significantly associated with the profession, level of education and work experience (P < 0.001), (P < 0.006), (P < 0.001) respectively, and nurses and midwives as the profession with the highest proportion with good practice. We conclude that the practices and knowledge of universal precautions were low and that's need for intensive programmes to educate health care workers on various aspects of standard precautions and infection control programmes and policies.
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Food labeling regulation has been implemented to enable consumers, including those with chronic diseases to make healthy informed choices before purchasing pre-packaged foods. The purpose of this study is to determine the prevalence of obese adults in Malaysia who practice reading food labels. It explored types of labels read and understanding of the information. Findings presented in this study were captured from the secondary analysis of National Health and Morbidity Survey’s (NHMS, 2006) food label study which focused only on obese adults (BMI > 30 kg/m2) aged 18 and above. This nation-wide cross sectional study was conducted from April to August 2006 using an interview-based questionnaire. Complex data analysis was done using Stata version 12.0. There were 4565 obese respondents with the mean age of 33 ± 9.7 (18 – 60 years old). About 54.7% completed high-school and 9.9% were higher degree holders. Prevalence of obese adults who claimed to read label was 80.5% (95%CI: 79.3, 81.6). Findings showed significant results in reading and understanding labels among all age group categories, Malay, Indian and other Bumiputras, all education categories and married respondents. Expiry date was the highest percentage being read (74.5%), followed by fat content (15.3%), vitamin (11.8%) and carbohydrate (10.9%). The obese population in Malaysia claimed to read and understand the food label but did not focus on specific macronutrients related to their health condition. Findings can be used to implement effective education programmes targeting the relevant groups to instill an awareness to read, understand and use the label information as one of the means in combating obesity.