Cultural Competency of Medical Students: An Asian Context

@#Introduction: People of different cultures perceive health and disease differently. A culturally competent healthcare team is needed to provide quality healthcare. In Asian medical schools, less emphasis is laid on cultural competency training. In this context, the study aims to assess the cultural competency of medical students in Malaysia and to fathom the demographic factors influencing it. Methods: A cross sectional survey was conducted on students from all five years of a Malaysian medical school using an adapted version of Clinical Cultural Competency Questionnaire (CCCQ) to tap the self-perceived knowledge, skills, comfort level in cross-cultural encounters and attitude towards cultural competency. Descriptive and inferential statistics was used to analyse the data. Results: Among the 291 respondents, the cultural competency was found to be significantly different among medical students of different year of study, age, and ethnicity. However, with regards to gender, country of birth or the number of languages spoken, the difference was insignificant. The clinical year students had significantly higher scores on the knowledge, skills, comfort level and attitude domains of cultural competency when compared to the preclinical students. Chinese students’ perception on cultural competence was significantly distinct from Indian and Malay students. Conclusion: Exposure to cross cultural encounters in clinical settings and personal experiences seem to influence cultural competency of the medical students. It provides valuable data to plan for interventions, training and self-development strategies aimed at providing culturally attuned patient centred care.

Understanding the Negative Public Perception on Vaccination in West Coast and East Coast Peninsular Malaysia

@#Introduction: Vaccination is a biological process that improves immunity level of an individual towards certain diseases. Vaccination is generally given to all newborn and kids. Most countries oblige their citizens to be vaccinated as early as new-born age. The aim of this research is to study the perception on vaccination intake and the associated factors that lead to its refusal among parents in east coast and west coast peninsular Malaysia. Methods: Primary data were collected using self-administered questionnaire and were distributed to assess the study objectives. Total 240 questionnaires were distributed equally in west coast and east coast study area. Questionnaire consists of demographic data, perception aspects and factors that may lead to the negative perceptions. Results: There is significant association between perception and religion, education level and side effect factor in east coast with majority of the respondents are Muslims (40.83%) while there is no significant association between education level and side effect factor (p>0.1) in west coast with majority of respondents are Muslims (51.67%) too. This study found that perception regarding vaccination is influenced by the religion restrictions in east coast of peninsular Malaysia and not in west coast region. The other factors associated with vaccination refusal varies according to education level, and regional basis. Conclusion: Most of the respondents who have negative perception regarding vaccination are from East Coast region as they are more prone into Islamic teachings. All the possible factors of vaccination refusal are accepted by the respondents but varies in its prevalence as the leading factor determined that caused the vaccination refusal are religion restriction and the least percentage for the factor is time restriction.

Staff Reflection on the Effectiveness of Whatsapp Usage for Organizational Communication: a Study in a Private Malaysian Medical School

@#Introduction: Recently mobile communication technology had tremendous advances and became the priority for most of the users with some opponent opinions that highlight the accountability and the privacy issues in using these messaging applications. WhatsApp is scored to be the first top used messaging application worldwide that is used in 180 countries by about 1.5 billion population. This research aims to determine the staff reflections regarding the WhatsApp usage for organizational communication. Methods: This study is implied among the staff at the medical and health life science cluster, Management and Science University (MSU), Malaysia. A questionnaire was distributed to all the staff through an online google form. Responses were analysed by the ‘Statistical Package for Social Sciences’ (SPSS) Version 24.0. Results: Results showed that all the staff responded (100%) are using WhatsApp for organizational communication with variable degrees of satisfaction; 8.1% are extremely satisfied, 61.3 % are satisfied, 12.9% are not satisfied and 16.1 % are extremely not satisfied. Their level of satisfaction is significantly affected by the respondent’s age, benefit of usage, and the time of messaging. Conclusion: To ensure effectiveness of communication through WhatsApp, it should be through official groups and the organization should put specific announced rules for the time of usage and the content of messages to be posted to all members.

Screening of Medical Students’ Intention to Practice Mobile – Learning in Malaysia

@#Introduction: The twenty-first-century learning is adopting the student-centered learning techniques and the teachers are mainly facilitators to direct the process of learning and so social media and mobile applications became an important learning platform. Mobile learning (M-learning) is the practice of learning activities through a portable device such as cellular phone or a personal digital assistant. The aim of this research is to screen the medical students’ intention toward the adoption of M-learning and to determine factors affecting the intentions of the medical students to practice M-learning. Methods: A cross-sectional study among medical students was performed through a questionnaire based on the Theory of Reasoned Action and the Technology Acceptance Model. The study included 129 students in different stages of the medical study. Results: Results showed that the factors affecting the students’ inten¬tion to practice M-learning include the students’ attitude, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and availability of resources. In the current sample 82.7% of students are already using M-Learning; 41.7% are using it for assessment, 22.8% are using it for learning and 35.5% are using it for both. Conclusion: It was concluded that most medical students have higher intention to adopt M-learning and they are mostly using it for assessment purposes rather than in learning.

Effect of Cigarette Smoking on the Academic Achievement Among Management and Science University Students

@#Introduction: Cigarette smoking is showing an increasing prevalence among university students nowadays. Smoking includes the act of smoking cigarette containing tobacco and/or other ingredients or just inhaling the cigarette smoke. Smoking has many known physical side effects that include psychological or cognitive effects. Therefore, the aim of this research is to identify the effect of cigarette smoking on the academic achievement among university students. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 136 students including 113 male and 23 female aged 18 to 29 years from Management and Science University with 30 non smoker students. The questionnaire included items about the social demographic characteristics, smoking status, the study styles and the academic achievement of the participants. A frequency statistics, descriptive statistics and chi square test were used to analyze the collected data using SPSS version 25. Results: Among the smoker students, 51.5% came to class early, 80.8% attend classes regularly, 49.3% studied on weekends and 39.7% planned sufficient time to study for exam. Mean CGPA for smoker students is 2.6. Conclusion: Smoking is proven to be associated with low academic performance among university student.

Study of the Pattern of Cell Phone Usage Associated With Side Effects Among University Students: Case Study in a Malaysian University

@#Introduction: Cell phone is a device that has been used almost every day for all age groups. It connects everyone and everything around the world as it provides various social platforms. However, not many people realized that cell phone is a source of non-ionizing electromagnetic waves that can be associated with various physical effects. Therefore, the aim of this research is to identify the physical side effects associated with exposure to the electromagnetic waves emitted by cell phone use and to detect if these effects are associated with specific pattern of use. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 166 participants randomly selected from university students. Results: showed that those suffering side effects associated with cell phone usage are usually using more than one cell phone (79%) since about 5 – 10 years (41.9%) for more than 5 hours daily (65.7%) for entertainment (34.3%) and making about 1-5 calls daily (41%) with average call duration 1 – 30 min (56.2%). 66.7% of them started using cell phone at age 7 – 12 years old, mostly handheld (61%), at their right side (40%), at all times of the day (64.8%). Most common side effects associated with cell phone usage include ear pain (52.4%), headache (79.5%), fatigue, anxiety or insomnia (57.8%), tremors and eye pain beside statistically significant (P<0.05) complain of dry mouth (56.6%) and/or bad odor mouth (46.4%). Conclusion: There is a specific pattern associated with occurrence of side effects due to cell phone use.

Quality of Life and Tendency to Aggression Among Relapsed and First Time Substance Abusers: A Comparative Assessment Study

@#Introduction: Drug abuse is a prevalent issue in Malaysia, and a constant struggle to eradicate even among substance abusers who have received prior rehabilitation. Drug abuse has also been known to affect the quality of life of an individual, due to the stigma it carries. This research emphasized on studying the life quality of relapsed and first-time substance abusers in rehabilitation centres including their tendency towards aggression. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted to evaluate the current inpatients in Cure & Care Rehabilitation Centres (CCRC) in Peninsular Malaysia. Primary data was acquired using a self-administered questionnaire consisting of socio-demographic (Part A), quality of life (Part B) and aggression related questions (Part C). 417 individuals were selected through purposive sampling from five different centres. A statistical analysis was conducted using independent t-test, single linear regression and Kruskal-Wallis using SPSS version 25.0. Results: An analysis of the data presented no significant association between quality of life and tendency of aggression among relapsed and first time substance abusers (p>0.05). Based on the analysis and the outcome, age influences the level of aggression (p=0.018) while quality of life is affected by education level (p=0.017). Marital status is a factor that affects both the level of aggression (p=0.015) and quality of life (p=0.043). Conclusion: The findings may contribute to law enforcements in reducing violent crimes committed by drug abusers and rehabilitation efforts by rehabilitation centres, by establishing demographic profiles in relation to quality of life and aggression.

Effects of Domestic Violence on Academic Achievement among University Students in Selangor, Malaysia

@#Introduction: Domestic violence is a serious issue that has often been overlooked by the society. It includes any physical, emotional or sexual violence that occurs between family members. Year after year, many cases of domestic violence have been reported in news and the numbers keep increasing from time to time. Experiencing this violence may give negative impacts on the victim. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of domestic violence among university students in Selangor, Malaysia and to discover its effects on their academic achievement. Methods: A cross-sectional study was implemented in a form of questionnaire that was distributed to 368 university students at Selangor, Malaysia in the period from June 2018 to December 2018. Results: Results showed that 69 respondents (18.7%) had experienced DV throughout their life; all of them suffered physical violence, 95.7% had suffered emotional violence while 14.5% had suffered sexual violence. Age, gender, residence, family income, institution’s type and speciality of study has no significant association with DV while, race, religion and parents’ status were significantly associated with DV. Also it was noticed that out of these 69 respondents that had experience of domestic violence, 36 of them were studying in private universities and 33 of them were studying in public universities. Most of those experienced domestic violence showed low CGPA. Conclusion: It is concluded that there is low prevalence of DV among university students in Selangor. Experiencing DV during childhood has an impact on the academic achievement of the victim in the future university life.