ABSTRACT
@#Introduction: General population across different countries have shown an overall support for anti-smoking measures that vary significantly by certain population parameters. However, characteristics of the public attitude in a community who has been exposed to prolonged awareness campaigns and smoke-free area legislation is unclear. Consequently, we investigate residents who reside next to Batu Buruk beach in Kuala Terengganu city which has been gazetted as a smoke-free area since 2017. Methods: The cross-sectional study involves self-administered validated questionnaires. Multiple linear regression with forward method was applied to identify significant factors associated with the attitude towards anti-smoking measures. Results: A total of 295 residents participated. Most of them were Malays (96.6%), married (64.4%), attained up to the secondary school level (45.4%) and employed (59.7%). The mean value of the total attitude scores was 181.86 (range: 70-200). Multivariate analyses revealed those having higher monthly income had a higher total attitude scores (adjusted b: 6.91, 95% CI: 2.15, 11.66), while current daily smokers had a lower total attitude scores towards anti-smoking measures than non-smokers (adjusted b: -23.30, 95% CI: -29.55, -17.05). These findings highlight comparatively stronger and more consistent support for anti-smoking measures that may vindicate high-stake investment and legislation against smoking. Conclusion: The novel evidence may also better-inform the strategy to expand the initiatives further through profiling the target population with heightened emphasis on the economic standing and prevalence of current daily smokers. Future research may adopt experimental design to establish causality relationship between predictors and outcomes revealed in this community.
ABSTRACT
Obesity and overweight problems are serious global health issues today and despite many efforts, the prevalence has continued to rise for decades. Interestingly, hypnotherapy has been gaining recognition as an effective treatment for obesity and overweight problems. This review compiles contemporary scientific research on the effectiveness of hypnotherapy for weight reduction. Scopus, PubMed and EBSCO Host databases were applied in the study. The search identified 119 articles, of which seven met the inclusion criteria. A total of 539 respondents (82.7% women and 17.3% men) between the ages of 17 and 67 years were represented in the seven studies. Most studies incorporated lifestyle changes, such as changes of dietary habit and behavioral recommendations in the hypnotic procedure. Their results suggested that the use of hypnotherapy not only promoted weight reduction during the treatment period but also after treatment cessation, and in some cases, one to ten kilograms were lost during follow-up periods. In addition, one study even showed increased physical activity among the hypnotised individuals. This use of hypnotherapy also improved respondents' eating behavior and quality of life. However, a definitive conclusion could not be drawn due to several methodological flaws and the limited number of published studies in this area. Therefore, further well-designed studies are needed to substantiate the effectiveness of hypnotherapy for this modern-day health problem.
ABSTRACT
@#Literature has documented that student nurses undergo stress in their academic and clinical setting. This raises concerns because stress during undergraduate training may result in psychological or emotional impairment during the nurses’ professional life and ultimately affect the quality of patient care. The Objective of the study was to study the prevalence of stress, and the association between sociodemographic factors, stressors and coping strategies with stress. This was a cross-sectional study on 96-year 1-3 nursing students from a government university done between 2015-2018. Bahasa Malaysia translated The General Health Questionnaire, Stressors in Nursing Student Scale Questionnaire and Brief COPE Questionnaire was used in this study. This study had Malay (95.9%) and female (91.7%) dominated population. The prevalence of stress in student nurses was 25%. No association was reported between sociodemographic factors and stress. Among the 4 stressors educational, clinical, confidence and financial, clinical stressor scored the highest mean 6.40 (SD±3.66). Confidence stressor (AOR=1.26 95% CI 1.04-1.53) was the only stressor associated with stress. The top 3 coping strategies practiced by the student nurses were religion (praying), acceptance and planning. Self-blame (AOR 8.18 95% CI 1.86-35.91) was the only coping strategy associated with stress. Stress management programmes, and workshops on stress and coping strategies should be conducted yearly to ensure a well-balanced environment for good learning experiences and prevent stress related health problems and improved academic performance.
ABSTRACT
Aedes mosquito-borne Dengue morbidity is predominantly high in the tropics and subtropics regions. Dengue is also a public health problem in Malaysia since the first epidemic in 1973. Reducing the vector population and personal protection still plays an important role in dengue prevention and control. With the information of community’s dengue knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP), the authorities could construct evidence-based, community- empowered vector control program. Upon the understanding of the value of baseline data, a cross-sectional study was carried out in dengue hotspot areas in Seberang Takir using universal sampling. The study results showed that 54.6% of the population had high level of knowledge, 18.6% had good attitude and 91.7% were performing good practices against Dengue infection. After adjusting confounding variables, age and educational levels of respondents, knowledge as well as attitude were found to be significant associated factors for having good practice against Dengue. The study findings provide the need for further information to undertake a holistic approach which is in need of community participation and cooperation.
ABSTRACT
Floods can lead to direct economic and property losses and result not only in physical injuries and deaths but also in psychological trauma. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a commonly used indicator to evaluate psychological injuries after disaster. This study aimed to determine the relationship between PTSD prevalence and related perceived severity of post flood impact by economical, non-economical and flood status severity domains besides relevant socio-demographic factors according to gender specific analysis. This cross-sectional study was conducted among community in Kampung Hulu Takir, Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia in 2015 two weeks after flood. It included a total of 98 males and 110 females aged 18 years and above. Data was collected by interview-guided questionnaire to determine the prevalence of PTSD. SPSS version 21.0 was used for analysis of the relationship between socio demographic factors, perceived economic, non-economic and flood severity with PTSD. Finally chi square test was used to assess the predictors of PTSD according to gender. The prevalence of PTSD was 9.2% in males and 10.9% in females, giving a total of 10.1%. Significantly higher prevalence of PTSD was found in severely perceived economic and flood impact categories (33.3% and 23.8% in males; 23.8 % and 37.5% in females) and giving in overall 44.0% and 31.3 % respectively. Effective PTSD management strategies targeting females post flood victims who severely perceived economically and nature flood impact should be implemented in order to prevent further consequences of PTSD.
ABSTRACT
Cooperative learning is one of the active learning techniques. There are three commonly recognized types of cooperative learning groups, namely informal cooperative learning (ICL), formal cooperative learning and cooperative base groups. There is no study been done on ICL which relate to radiology teaching. The results of this study will provide evidence to support either traditional lecture (TL) or ICL is a more suitable teaching method for radiology teaching. This study was aimed to compare students’ attitude and preference towards TL versus ICL in radiology teaching. This interventional study had been conducted among 52 third year Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) students at Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin. They underwent both TL and ICL methods during eleven radiology lectures in classroom setting from September 2013 until July 2014. Subsequently, multiple items questionnaires regarding students’ attitude and preferences towards TL and ICL were administered. These questionnaires had undergone validation process and revealed excellent internal consistency with Cronbach’s Alpha of 0.90, 0.92 and 0.88 respectively. The mean total attitude score towards informal cooperative learning was (90.90) (SD: 11.73) significantly higher than the score for traditional lecture 85.46 (SD: 11.82) (p= 0.012). Students showed preference in ICL significantly in six domains. These domains were active involvement in the class, promotion of good rapport among classmates, getting an opportunity to help others, facilitation of understanding difficult materials, improvement of communication skills, opportunity for training to be a good leader and follower, and opportunity for enabling to participate in sharing information, making decision and problem solving. ICL method is recommended in radiology teaching because students demonstrated better students’ attitude and preferences in the learning sessions as compared to TL.