Chan Ding training is beneficial to health and emotional wellbeing. More and more people have taken up this practice over the past few years. A major training method of Chan Ding is to focus on the ten Mailuns, i.e., energy points, and to maintain physical stillness. In this article, wireless wearable accelerometers were used to detect physical stillness, and the created physical stillness index (PSI) was also shown. Ninety college students participated in this study. Primarily, accelerometers used on the arms and chest were examined. The results showed that the PSI values on the arms were higher than that of the chest, when participants moved their bodies in three different ways, left-right, anterior-posterior, and hand, movements with natural breathing. Then, they were divided into three groups to practice Chan Ding for approximately thirty minutes. Participants without any Chan Ding experience were in Group I. Participants with one year of Chan Ding experience were in Group II, and participants with over three year of experience were in Group III. The Chinese Happiness Inventory (CHI) was also conducted. Results showed that the PSI of the three groups measured during 20-30 min were 0.123 ± 0.155, 0.012 ± 0.013, and 0.001 ± 0.0003, respectively (p < 0.001 ***). The averaged CHI scores of the three groups were 10.13, 17.17, and 25.53, respectively (p < 0.001 ***). Correlation coefficients between PSI and CHI of the three groups were -0.440, -0.369, and -0.537, respectively (p < 0.01 **). PSI value and the wearable accelerometer that are presently available on the market could be used to evaluate the quality of the physical stillness of the participants during Chan Ding practice.
Abstract: A total of 307 Malaysian children and their parents were surveyed to ascertain the prevalence of mental health problems amongst urban primary and secondary school children. The results indicated that secondary school children report slightly higher rates of depressive symptoms, whereas primary school children report higher rates of social problems. There was also a discrepancy between child and parents reports of children’s emotions and behaviours. Children’s self-reports of aggressive behaviours where higher than their parents’ reports. Alternatively, parents reported lower levels of their childrens’ emotional problems, as compared with the childrens’ self-report. When gender was taken into consideration, females were reported to be more aggressive, withdrawn, and have more attention problems when compared with males.
Many researchers have emphasized the importance of teaching stress management and self-care skills to medical students as they are vulnerable to develop psychological health problems. The researchers designed a 4-hour intervention based on the DEAL model to address these problems. This study aimed to determine outcomes of the DEAL-based intervention on medical students’ stress, anxiety and depression symptoms. Methods: A randomized controlled trial study was conducted on 171 medical students. Their stress, anxiety and depression symptoms were measured by the 21-item Depression Anxiety Stress Scale at five intervals; at 2 weeks before the intervention, and at 1 week, 8 weeks, 16 weeks and 32 weeks after the intervention. The mixed model ANCOVA was applied to determine the effect of the intervention on the participants’ psychological health at five intervals. Results: A total of 153 medical students (intervention = 73 and control = 80) completed this study. Results showed that the intervention group experienced significantly lower stress and depression symptoms than the control group. Although anxiety scores are consistently lower in the intervention group, no significant differences between groups were found. Conclusion: These results support the favourable outcomes of the intervention on psychological health of medical students. It is a promising intervention to be considered by medical schools as it consumes minimal amount of time, money, training and man power as well can be implemented easily.
Objective: Globally, there is growing evidence of stigmatization of people with mental illnesses and mental illness is more stigmatizing than physical illnesses. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the attitudes of university students towards persons with mental illness. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among Management and Science University students during the academic year 2012. Prior ethical approval was taken for conducting the study. A total of 300 medical and health science students was recruited in this study and the response rate was 93%. The survey questionnaire was adopted from a previous study with 15 statements about attitude towards mental health illness and sociodemographic characteristics. Classes were chosen randomly and students also randomly selected. The inclusion criterion for this research was medical and health science students while the exclusion criterion was students from other faculties, staff and lecturers. Data was analyzed with the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 13.0. Descriptive statistics were used for the analysis of the basic demographics and survey items of the questionnaire. T-test and multiple linear regression were used to explore the relationship between the socio-demographic and the attitude. Results: A total number of 279 students participated in this study. The majority of them were female, age 20 years and above, single, Malay, from International Medical School (IMS) and from urban areas (68.5%, 88.2%, 96.4%, 58.1%, 60.2%, 77.8% respectively). In this study, the majority of the participants showed a moderate to good attitude towards people with mental illness. Univariate analysis showed that marital status influenced the attitudes of university students towards people with mental illness (p=0.015). In multivariate analysis, multiple linear regression showed that gender, marital status, smoking and drinking alcohol significantly influenced the attitude of university students towards people with mental illness (p=0.014, p=0.012; p=0.009, p=0.013; respectively). Conclusion: This study showed that the undergraduate university students had a moderate to good attitude towards people with mental illness. Gender, marital status, smoking and drinking alcohol significantly influenced the attitude of undergraduate university students towards people with mental illness. ASEAN Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 14 (1): January - June 2013: XX XX.
Objectives: This paper reports the outcome of Session With Carer, one of the activities in the Year 4 Personal and Professional Development (PPD) module in the new integrated curriculum of the Undergraduate Medical Programme at the Faculty of Medicine,
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM). Methods: This activity involves groups of 14 – 15 students sitting in with family members of individuals with mental illness. The session starts with the carer giving his or her perspective of patient’s care and the challenges involved. This is followed by a question and answer session. Finally, the carer provides a written feedback by way of scoring certain items as well as brief comments. After the session, each student is required to prepare an individual report in the form of reflective writing. Results: Out of a total of 224 students, the reflections of 126 students were reviewed to assess what they had learnt from the Session With Carer. Among the more significant findings were: 100% learnt about the various challenges faced by carers. 31.7% learnt the importance of
faith/spirituality of the carer in caring for a mentally ill family member. 29.4% learnt the importance of family and others’ support. An equal number, that is, 26.2% learnt that it helps for the carer to have good mental health and a positive attitude, as well as good
knowledge of the illness. Those who became aware of the benefits of the carer having patience and determination made up 23.8% of the total reflections reviewed. Conclusion: The findings show that the Session With Carer is very educational, and helps create more
awareness of the importance of the carer’s role in patient management and support. In other words, carers can act as teachers in creating more public awareness about mental illness and
ultimately, help in gradually removing the stigma associated with mental illness. Therefore, carers should be utilized for this purpose.
This case report emphasizes the role of Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) in managing a family with four members suffering from mental illness, mainly schizophrenia. We report a case of middle-aged lady who was diagnosed with treatment resistant schizophrenia (TRS) living with two other family members with the same illness and their carer who developed major depression from shouldering the burden of caring for mentally ill family members. ACT, through its holistic approach, proved to have reduced hospitalizations and improve symptom control and quality of life in this family.
Matched MeSH terms: Community Mental Health Services
Mental health is a growing concern in the field of occupational health globally due to its social, health, and economic implications on the individual and the community at large. As universities in Malaysia are advancing towards becoming world-class research universities, academicians are now faced with more pressures, making them more vulnerable to burnout. A cross sectional study was conducted among 194 randomly sampled academicians from a faculty of a public university. Data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire to assess the sociodemographic characteristics, occupational characteristics and burnout. Analysis was done using SPSS version 21. The response rate was 87.1%. The overall prevalence of burnout was 10.7% with significant associations between gender (χ2 = 4.61; p = 0.03), teaching experience (χ2 = 0.83; p = 0.02), job satisfaction (χ2 = 11.33; p = 0.001). Female academicians have a higher prevalence of burnout (14.3%). Academicians who have fewer years of teaching experience (
Background: Personality disorders is one of the most assessed mental health problems among prison population. To date, no local psychometric instrument to assess personality disorder is available in Malaysia. Objective: The aim of this study is to validate the Malay-translated version of the McLean Screening Instrument for Borderline Personality Disorder (MSI-BPD) among prisoner. Methods: A cross-sectional study was designed, involving female prisoners (n=90). Face validity, factor analysis, and reliability testing were conducted with a one-week interval test-retest. Results: The translated instrument produced four factors structure. The internal consistency is moderate (α=.64), with high test-retest reliability (ICC=.82). Conclusion: The Malay-translated version of the MSI-BPD was found valid and reliable to identify borderline personality disorder among female prisoner in future studies.
encountered particularly in mental health issues and to additionally analyze the methodologies used in studies involving HIV/AIDS informal caregivers.
Methods: Four electronic databases; Science Direct, EBSCOhost, Ovid and Springer Link were searched for articles published in the past 10 years (2002 - 2012). Only full-text English articles related to research on care giving of HIV-infected adult patients were selected.
Results: Twenty two out of 293 articles (7.5%) were reviewed, involving 2,765 caregivers in the USA (n=1,610), Africa (n=253), Asia (n=838) and Oceania (n=64) regions. A variety of age categories was involved in care giving with the youngest carer being 12 years old and the oldest, 60 years on average. Females and whites appeared to be dominant and 603 caregivers themselves were HIV positive. The main outcomes measured were care giving burden, challenges and coping. Stress and depression, stigma and discrimination, insufficient support, role overload and extreme poverty were the main challenges experienced in care giving. Both qualitative (n=11) and quantitative (n=9) were the equally preferred types of study. Purposive sampling emerged as the most preferred sampling technique. Various instruments were utilized, but the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) was the most popular particularly in quantitative studies.
Conclusion: A variety of life aspects were negatively affected in the process of care giving for HIV/AIDS patients and studies of such nature commonly focused on caregivers' psychosocial burden.
Apart from environmental and social factors, psychological traits is largely linked with criminal and delinquent behaviour. The purpose of this article is to review four critical psychological traits of individuals that may lead to criminal behaviour in a nutshell. Methods: An archival research methodology was employed in this study where relevant search for literatures on these four psychological traits was made across search engines such as Google Scholar with relevant articles selected for this review. The literatures were microscopically reviewed in order to demonstrate the linkage between psychological traits and criminal behaviour. Results: Four psychological traits: personality trait, low selfcontrol, aggression behaviour, and cognitive distortion were chosen to address such linkages. All these four traits were discussed thoroughly in relation to crime and criminality contexts. Conclusion: It is crucial to understand the role of these traits and in-depth understanding of each psychological trait with relation of criminal behaviour offers an opportunity to the public at large to expand their knowledge on the importance of practicing and equipping oneself with healthy psychological traits to hinder from criminal and delinquent acts. ASEAN Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 16 (2): July – December 2015: XX XX.
Literature review suggests that polyphenols in particular flavonoids, are beneficial for mental health during aging process. This review examines the effect of consumption of all polyphenols groups on mental health and cognitive status during aging process. The keywords searched were “mental health,” “depression,” “anxiety,” “stress” and “cognitive” combined with “dietary,” and “polyphenols.” The databases including PubMed, Web of Science and CAB Abstracts were searched for a period of 10 years. A total of 11 studies were identifi ed to fulfi ll the inclusion criteria. From this review, polyphenols may confer beneficial effects towards mental health, in particular the decline in cognitive functions during aging process, however, some studies showed contradictory results. Polyphenols have been proven to improve language and verbal ability, which is among the main vulnerable aspects in cognitive decline in pathological brain aging. In contrast, polyphenols intake did not seem to affect executive functioning. The effects of polyphenols towards cognitive status were more prominent among the elderly as compared to young and middle-aged adults. This review also shows that flavonoids is the main type of polyphenols that confer positive effects towards cognitive status during aging. This review provides evidence that consumption of polyphenols may lead to cognitive and mental health benefits. Further clinical trials involving human subjects are required with carefully designed methodology to elucidate the potential mechanisms underlying the relationship between polyphenols consumption and improvement in cognitive and mental health status.
A cross»sectional study was undertaken between April 2005 to _1 uly 2005 to determine the extent of the health problems experienced by individuals involved in the December 2004 tsunami wave disaster in the Northeast District of Penang, Malaysia. The overall health status of the respondents were evaluated using the Short Form 36 (SF-36) questionnaire. Out of 171 respondents, 160(93 .6%) were Malays, 8(4.7%) were Chinese and 3(1.8%) were Indians. The mean age ofrespondents was 45.4 years, 15.9 years. Ninety-four of the respondents were males (55.0%) while 7 7(45.0%) were females. The overall mean physical component score was significantly lower (66.9:23 .O) amongst respondents with low education level compared with those with high education level (76.3:19.1, p=0.004). This mean score was also significantly much lower ( 68.7:22 .3) amongst those who are married compared to those who were not married (79.8:1 7.4, p=0.003) . The overall mental health score was significantly much higher (78.8:14.6) amongst those who were not married compared to those who were married (68.5:19.2, p=0.001). The overall mental health score was also significantly higher amongst those in the younger age»group (62.3:16.1) compared to those in the older age»group (72.4:18.9, p=0.005). Based on the scores obtained on the Physical Health and Mental Health dimensions of the SF-36 questionnaire, it can be concluded that the health of victims with low education, elderly and those who were married were more adversely affected than others. Therefore, it is vital that medical as well as psychological attention should be channeled to these risk groups who responded more adversely to disasters.
The health related quality of life (HRQoL) of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients is greatly influenced by their health status. The Health Index Questionnaire - Short Form 36 (SF-36) and St George Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) are commonly used to assess the HRQoL of COPD patients. Objective: This study investigates differences in HRQoL following sessions of pulmonary rehabilitation program (PRP) with a control group (CG) that had no intervention. Method: This quasi-experimental study involving 17 subjects assigned to the CG and 16 subjects in the intervention group (IG). Ethical approval was obtained from the relevant authority. Both groups were given the health index questionnaires- SF-36 and SGRQ prior and 5 weeks after the intervention. The CG only had medication while the IG performed exercises (cycling, treadmill walking, upper limb strengthening exercise and stair climbing exercise). Results: Data analysis using SPANOVA demonstrated significant improvement in HRQoL measured from SF-36 in domains of bodily pain (p=0.005), vitality (p=0.021) and mental health (p=0.002) in IG unlike the CG. Similarly, SGRQ, also shows improvement in symptom (p=0.028), activity (p=0.004) and total score (p=0.012. Conclusion: The 5 weeks pulmonary rehabilitation program demonstrated improvement in HRQoL among COPD
patients.
Life (QOL) of patients with childhood leukaemias presenting at the Hospital Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (HUKM). The objectives of this pilot study were 1) To assess the feasibility and applicability of assessing quality of life in leukaemia patients using the adult-based SF-36 questionnaire. 2) To compare the differences of QOL scores among patients based on gender and treatment status. The Short-Form-36 Health Survey (SF36) was used. The items in SF-36 were drawn from the original 245-item MOS questionnaire, which includes multi-item scales that measured the eight dimensions of quality of life namely physical function, role limitations (physical problems), bodily pain, general health, vitality, social functioning, role limitations (emotional problems) and mental health. Patients with acute leukaemias were chosen to participate in the study. Twenty-eight patients were recruited, twelve were males and 16 were females. Ten patients had completed therapy whilst 18 others were still undergoing treatment. The results showed that those patients off treatment have a better quality of life than those on chemotherapy. However, this was only significant with respect to the role limitation pertaining to physical problems. Although the use of the SF-36 was feasible, there were limitations especially in the younger age group.
Mental health is an integral component to the formation of human capital performance. Human capital with high productivity is the key factor to the growth of a country. Thus, this study aims to investigate the relationship between the level of mental health of undergraduate students in Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) with their performance. Mental health was measured using the General Health Questionnaire 12-item (GHQ-12) and the performance was based on the Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA). A total of 316 undergraduate students at UUM had answered questionnaires that were distributed. The data were analysed descriptively and the effect of the level of mental health on performance was tested using probit model. Based on GHQ-12, 48% respondents were found to have a good mental health status. A total of 67.21% of the students who obtain CGPA 3.67 and above have a good level of health compared with only 36.08% for those with CGPA under 3.67. Based on the probit model, the level of mental health was found to be significant at 1% level in influencing the CGPA. These findings provide indication to policy makers of the importance of mental health in influencing the students’ performance. Mental health education programs should be implemented or enhanced to raise awareness of the importance of good mental health state among students in higher education institution.
Keywords: CGPA; GHQ-12; mental health; productivity; Kedah; Malaysia
Introduction: This study measured the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) among COPD patients attending outpatient clinic at Institute of Respiratory Medicine, Kuala Lumpur.
Materials and Methods: A cross sectional survey was conducted from November 2008 to January 2009 on 99 COPD patients. Subjects were interviewed through socio-demographic and health characteristics. The HRQoL was measured using the SF-36v2 questionnaires.
Results: Majority of the subjects were above 60 years (64.6%) with mean age of 64.10 ± 11.04 years, male (84.8%), Malays (49.5%), married (74.7%), primary educational level(57.6%), income level below RM1000 (39.4%), ex-smoker (64.6%), moderate COPD (40.4%), 1 to 5 years of illness (62.6%), presence of co-morbidities (65.7%) and satisfied with support from caregiver (48.5%). The total mean score for physical health component summary (PCS) was 41.64 ± 7.99 and mental health component summary (MCS) was 46.53 ± 13.21.
Conclusion: There were significant differences in PCS for different educational level (p<0.05) and socio-economic status (p<0.01). The MCS were signifi cantly different between ethnicity (p<0.05) and level of satisfaction with support from caregiver (p<0.01). This finding provides information that needed focus in
healthcare services.
KEYWORDS: COPD, health-related quality of life, Malaysia
Study site: outpatient clinic, Institute of Respiratory Medicine, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Introduction: Tobacco smoking kills and estimated six million lives annually worldwide of which include 10,000 Malaysian lives. Twenty three per cent of Malaysian adults smoke however, similar prevalence is not known among the mentally ill. Those with mental illness often have higher prevalence rates and greater disability due to smoking. This commentary aims to update the mental health community in Malaysia on the on-going efforts made locally to assist the national tobacco control agenda. Methods: A brief report of recent updates is provided for this article. Results and Conclusion: Three major significant activities are reported, all of which will move the tobacco control agenda within psychiatry forward. These activities will allow psychiatry be in a better position to align tobacco control activities for the mentally ill
together with the general population.
Background: Having multiple kinds of health problems among metabolic syndrome patients may cause
them stress. Life events also may worsen their stress. Negative stress affects not only their physical but also
emotional health. Various coping styles are used in order to deal with their stress. However, not all coping
styles can overcome their stress.
Objectives: This study aims to explore the coping styles that have been employed by the stressed metabolic
syndrome patients in Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia.
Method: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the stressed metabolic syndrome patients in
Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia. A purposive sampling was selected among stressed respondents, as
fifteen of them participated in this study after saturation data was reached. The qualitative data was analysed
using content analysis and was categorized into dysfunctional, problem-focused and emotion-focused
coping.
Results: The themes that emerged were; self-distraction, venting, behavioural disengagement, denial and
self-blame. These were categorized as dysfunctional coping; acceptance, religion and emotional support as
emotion-focused coping and active coping and instrumental support which were categorized as problemfocused
coping. Other new coping styles identified were physical intervention, avoidance and emotion
suppression.
Conclusion: Coping styles has direct influence on the feeling of stress. Stressed patients used many
dysfunctional coping styles rather than other categories of coping which lead them to remain in stress. These
data highlighted the need to educate patients about good coping styles to give them additional skills in
managing their stress thus improving their health.
Background: Little is known about the health of GMS commercial fishers and seafarers, many of whom are migrants and some trafficked. This systematic review summarizes evidence on occupational, physical, sexual and mental health and violence among GMS commercial fishers/seafarers.
Methods: We searched 5 electronic databases and purposively searched grey literature. Quantitative or qualitative studies reporting prevalence or risk of relevant outcomes were included. Two reviewers independently screened articles. Data were extracted on nationality and long/short-haul fishing where available.
Results: We identified 33 eligible papers from 27 studies. Trafficked fishers/seafarers were included in n=12/13 grey literature and n=1/20 peer-reviewed papers. Among peer-reviewed papers: 11 focused on HIV/AIDS/sexual health; nine on occupational/physical health; one study included mental health of trafficked fishers. Violence was quantitatively measured in eight papers with prevalence of: 11-26% in port convenience samples; 68-100% in post-trafficking service samples. Commercial fishers/seafarers whether trafficked or not worked extremely long hours; trafficked long-haul fishers had very limited access to care following injuries or illness. Lesser-known risks reported among fishers included penile oil injections and beriberi. We found just one work safety intervention study and inconclusive evidence for differences in the outcomes by nationality. Findings are limited by methodological weaknesses of primary studies.
Conclusion: Results show an absence of high-quality epidemiological studies beyond sexual health. Formative and pilot intervention research on occupational, physical and mental health among GMS commercial fishers and seafarers is needed. Future studies should include questions about violence and exploitation. Ethical and reporting standards of grey literature should be improved.
Amanah refers to the accountability of Muslims to their community. In Malaysian Muslim university students (N = 209), an Amanah Scale predicted a stronger sense of identity along with more adaptive religious and psychosocial functioning. Multiple regression analyses identified Accountability to Society as especially influential, but Accountability to Allah exhibited at least some problematic implications. Amanah mediated Identity linkages with some measures of religious and psychological adjustment, but also suppressed Identity relationships with greater self-knowledge and lower anxiety. These data confirmed the importance of communal commitments in Muslim mental health, suggested that accountability may have limited liabilities as well as more obvious psychosocial advantages, and identified possible complexities in the assessment of Accountability to Allah.