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@#Introduction: Oral health knowledge ensures that the person has all the requisite information to find out which oral diseases are and how they occur and recognize the security measures that must be taken. This knowledge can lead to changes in attitude, which leads to changes in the person’s everyday life. This study aims to evaluate oral health-related knowledge and determine its associated factors among Universiti Putra Malaysia staff. Methods: A cross-sectional study involving 207 UPM staff. The study included the UPM Malaysian staff (permanent, temporary, contract), and excluded foreigners and staff on leave. Stratified random sampling was used to select a representative sample with five selected faculties. Oral health knowledge was assessed with a validated and pretested questionnaire. Results: The total respondents were 162 from 207 subjects, giving a response rate of 78.3%. In this study, more than half of the participants have satisfactory knowledge (56.2%). The results show a significant association between oral health knowledge and each of: level of education, monthly income, faculty, type of staff, and smoking. It is observed that postgraduate staff are more knowledgeable towards oral health with 63.2% compared to graduate level and below with 39.6% only. In addition, the staff with higher incomes are more likely to have satisfactory knowledge compared to the working staff with lower incomes with percentage up to 20%. Regarding the source of information association, none of the factors is found to have a significant association. Conclusion: More than half of the participants have satisfactory knowledge on oral health. Despite this, a significant proportion of staff have unsatisfactory knowledge, which suggests initiating an awareness program for the staff members to increase their knowledge of oral health.
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ABSTRACT Physical inactivity is considered a risk factor with unfavorable conditions to health. This study aimed at comparing the frequency and duration of physical activity practice between the students and staff of the university known as Universidade Federal do Vale do São Francisco (UNIVASF). The sample comprised 483 students, 49 professors and 153 subjects of the administrative staff. The short form of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire and a sociodemographic data questionnaire were used. The results showed that 61.8% of the participants were more physically active, and highlighted that women practice more moderate activities, whereas men do more vigorous ones, in addition to the fact that the individuals inserted in the human field with master and doctorate degrees practice less walking in days and minutes per week. In conclusion, when considering the frequency and duration of physical activity practice, the students were more active than the professors and the administrative staff; moreover, the individuals with master and doctorate degrees who are inserted in the human field were less active in walking.
RESUMO A inatividade física é considerada fator de risco para condições desfavoráveis à saúde. Objetivou-se comparar a frequência e duração da prática de atividade física dos discentes e servidores da Universidade Federal do Vale do São Francisco (UNIVASF). A amostra foi composta por 483 alunos, 49 docentes e 153 técnicos administrativos. Foram utilizados o Questionário Internacional de Atividade Física - versão curta e um questionário de dados sociodemográficos. Os resultados mostram que 61,8% dos participantes foram mais ativos fisicamente, evidenciando que as mulheres praticam mais atividades moderadas enquanto os homens mais atividades vigorosas, e indivíduos da área de humanas e com nível de escolaridade de mestrado e doutorado praticam menos caminhada em dias e minutos por semana. Conclui-se que os alunos foram mais ativos que os docentes e técnicos administrativos em relação a frequência e duração da prática de atividade física, destacando que indivíduos com mestrado e doutorado e pertencentes à área de humanas foram menos ativos na caminhada.
Subject(s)
Humans , Sports , Government Employees , Motor Activity , Students , UniversitiesABSTRACT
Introduction: Stress in the work place is a global major risk factor to worker’s health, which triggers the workers to be poorly motivated and less productive. Objectives: The objective of the study was to determine the prevalence of job stress and its associated factors among Universiti Putra Malaysia staff. Methods: This is a cross sectional study involving 511 academic and non-academic staff of Universiti Putra Malaysia in Serdang. Probability proportionate to size was used for calculating the required sample size. Results: The overall prevalence of stress was 21.7% (21.0% among male and 23.0% among female). The variables found to be significantly associated with stress were: Job demand, coworker support, depression, anxiety, focus and venting of emotion and self-blame (p<0.05). The findings revealed that UPM staffs are exposed to a range of specific stressors such as work stressor: job demand, lack of social support such as co-worker support and supervisor support, psychological stressors such as depression and anxiety, coping such as focus and venting of emotion and self-blame. Work stressor such as job demand was the main predictor of stress (p value = 0.001). Conclusion: The overall prevalence of job stress was 21.7%. The predictors job stress were job demand, lack of support from co-worker and supervisor, depression, anxiety and use of avoidance focused coping.
Subject(s)
Quality of Life , Stress, PhysiologicalABSTRACT
Globally, one person dies every six seconds as a result of tobacco use. This makes tobacco use the cause of every one out of 10 deaths in adults and the single largest and leading cause of preventable death in the world. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of smoking among staff of Universiti Putra Malaysia. For the purpose of this study an analytical cross sectional study design was used and a standardized, pre-tested, while a validated well-structured questionnaire was used for data collection. The prevalence of smoking was found to be 10.0% (26.5% among males and 0.5% among females). In addition, signifi cant associations were found between smoking and gender, religion, marital status, highest educational level, occupation, and family income (p < 0.05). In particular, gender and educational level were signifi cant predictors of smoking. In conclusion, the prevalence of smoking among university staff was shown to be considerably lower than that stated for the national level. However, the University could aim at achieving zero prevalence in the years to come.