Academic experiences, physical and mental health impact of COVID-19 pandemic on students and lecturers in health care education.

BACKGROUND: In keeping with nation-wide efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19, Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD) transformed fully its pedagogical delivery to online mode, where we investigated teaching and learning experiences, physical and mental health of undergraduate students and lecturers during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional study on undergraduate students and lecturers in a health science faculty using a self-developed pretested questionnaire through anonymous online data collection method. RESULTS: Fifty-six lecturers (100% response rate) and 279 students (93.3% response rate) participated. The positive experiences reported by students include becoming independent (72.8%) and adapting to online learning (67.4%), while lecturers learned new teaching techniques (50.0%) and became more innovative (50.0%) by learning new tools (48.2%). However, studying at home caused students to feel more distracted (72.0%) with a feeling of uncertainty towards examinations (66.7%), while lecturers felt that students' laboratory skills were compromised (44.6%). Even though online delivery of assessments enabled lecturers to explore all options (50.0%), they found it difficult to maintain appropriate questions (41.1%) and fair assessments (37.5%). Majority of students missed eating out (68.8%) and felt a lack of participation in extracurricular activities (64.9%), while lecturers reported more time for exercise (51.8%), despite having more screen time (50.0%) and computer-related physical stress (44.6%). In terms of mental health, increased stress in students was reported (64.9%), though they had more time for self-reflection (54.8%). Although lecturers reported a closer relationship with family (44.6%), they also felt more stressed due to deadlines, unexpected disruptions and higher workloads (44.6%) as well as concerns related to work, family and self (39.3%). CONCLUSION: In this abrupt shift to online teaching, students and lecturers in our study identified both positive and negative experiences including the impact on their physical and mental health. Our findings are important to provide the evidence for online pedagogical benefits and can serve to promote the enhancement and adaptation of digital technology in education. Our findings also aim to promote the importance of addressing physical and mental health issues of the university community's well-being through provision of emotional and mental health support and appropriate programs.

Use of Oral Cleaning Devices and Their Perceived Benefits among Malaysians in Kuala Lumpur and Johor Bahru: An Exploratory Structured Approach.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Various devices have been used to maintain oral hygiene. These include toothbrush and toothpaste, mouthwash, dental floss, miswak, and toothpick. This study attempts to investigate the use of various oral cleaning devices and their perceived benefits among Malaysians. METHODS: A quantitative cross-sectional study conducted in two different cities of Malaysia. A convenience sampling approach was adopted. A total of 787 participants agreed to participate in the current research. A validated questionnaire translated into national language was used for data collection. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: Data analysis was performed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 20. RESULTS: About 302 respondents were in the age range of 18 - 25 years old (38.4%). There were marginally more females (55.7%) than males (44.3%). Although 99.9% of the participants used a toothbrush, a significant majority (n = 590, 75%) used more than a single device to maintain their oral hygiene. Only 311 respondents knew that toothpicks were inappropriate to use to remove food between teeth and gums, while a majority (n = 592, 75.2%) did not realize that some mouthwashes can stain the teeth. Less than half (42.1%) knew that improper use of miswak might harm the teeth. CONCLUSIONS: Although their oral hygiene behaviors are relatively at a higher level, their perceived oral health benefits did not compare well.

Patients' Perceptions of Dental Students' Empathic, Person-Centered Care in a Dental School Clinic in Malaysia.

Empathy has been identified as a crucial foundation in building an effective dentist-patient relationship. The aim of this study was to assess patients' perceptions of dental students' empathic care in the primary oral health care clinic at International Medical University in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in May-October 2014. The study also assessed the validity and reliability of the Consultation and Relational Empathy (CARE) Measure in this setting; the association between number of encounters and students' CARE Measure scores; and the association between students' empathy (measured by the Toronto Empathy Questionnaire) and CARE Measure scores. Participants were 283 patients (aged ≥18 years) who were asked to self-complete the ten-item CARE Measure immediately after their clinical encounter with students who provided care under supervision of the teaching staff. The results showed that the CARE Measure demonstrated good internal consistency (Cronbach's α=0.95). A single factor solution emerged, accounting for 69% of the variance. The mean CARE Measure score in the consultations was 43.55±6.14, and 26% of the students achieved the maximum possible score of 50. The mean number of encounters with each student was 2.33±2.78. An increase of one episode was associated with an insignificant average CARE score decrease of 0.05 (-0.28, 0.38), whereas students' empathy was associated with a small increase in average CARE Measure score of 0.63 (0.08, 1.18). These results provide evidence of the measure's ability to support feedback to dental students on their empathy when interacting with patients.

Reasons of using complementary and alternative medicines (CAM) among elderly Malaysians of Kuala Lumpur and Selangor states: An exploratory study.

BACKGROUND: This study is aimed to explore the types of CAM and reasons of using CAM among elderly Malaysians. METHOD: This cross-sectional study was conducted on a sample of 256 conveniently selected elderly Malaysians who were residing in the states of Selangor and Kuala Lumpur. A pre-validated interview-administered questionnaire was used to gather information. Data was entered into PASW version 18 and analyzed. RESULTS: A total of 256 questionnaires were included in the study. A response rate of 64% was achieved. Out of 256 respondents, 92 (35.9%) were male while 164 (64.1%) were female. More than half of the respondents (n = 141; 55.1%) agreed that CAM is more effective than allopathic medicine. Chinese respondents showed strong belief in the effectiveness of CAM. In terms of safety of CAM, close to three quarters of respondents (n = 178; 69.5%) believed that CAM is safer than allopathic medicine. A large majority of respondents agreed that CAM has less side effects compared to allopathic medicine (n = 201; 78.5%) and also agreed that CAM is good to maintain overall health and wellbeing (n = 212; 82.8%). A majority of the respondents expressed that they use CAM because allopathic medicine is less effective (n = 113; 44.1%). CONCLUSION: The current study reflects the reasons of using CAM among lay public from different ethnicities. There are no reports of adverse effects related to CAM use. Future approaches should be intended for awareness campaigns for consumers, highlighting safety profile of CAM and as well as forbidding their use without the consultation of healthcare professional.