METHODS: A representative sample of 1747 adolescents (13-14 years) was randomly selected from 6 schools in a south part of Malaysia. Respondents were asked to fill consent form, and questionnaires including Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale-21 and Physical Activity Questionnaire for Adolescents.
RESULTS: Majority of respondents (71.9%) was Malay and more than half of the adolescents had low physical activity. About 40% had depression symptoms, followed by anxiety symptoms (65.9%) and stress symptoms (38.5%). Level of physical activity was significantly associated with gender, anxiety and stress (P<0.001). There were no associations with race, religion and depression symptom.
CONCLUSIONS: This study provides some evidence among school-going adolescents related to anxiety and stress symptoms and low physical activities. Further studies are needed to show the protection effects of higher physical activity for depression, anxiety and stress symptoms in adolescents.
METHODS: Data were obtained from the 2012 Malaysia Global School-based Student Health Survey. Generalized ordered logit regression analysis was conducted on 24 339 adolescents by PA status.
RESULTS: Early- (ages 11-13) and middle-stage (ages 14-16) adolescents were associated with higher overweight and obesity risks than their older peers (ages 17-18). Male adolescents faced higher underweight and obesity likelihoods than females. Hunger due to food shortage at home was associated with higher likelihoods of underweight and normal weight BMI categories. Smokers were more likely to be underweight or normal weight than non-smokers. Segmented-sample analysis by PA status indicated that, while the direction of associations was parallel across PA status, the magnitudes of association between age, hunger and smoking status with BMI status were greater among active than inactive adolescents.
CONCLUSIONS: Male adolescents faced a dual burden of underweight and obesity. Other sociodemographic and dietary-lifestyle factors were associated with adolescent BMI categories. Segmented-sample analysis by PA status uncovered varying associations between factors that would otherwise be masked in pooled sample analysis. Public health authorities should take these factors into consideration when deliberating programs to ensure healthy adolescent body weight.
METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study on 9553 adolescents (aged 12-15 years) from 8 Asian metropolitan cities (Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Taipei, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Seoul, and Singapore). Cardiorespiratory fitness was assessed by using a 15-m progressive aerobic capacity endurance run (PACER) test. The time spent on MVPA and watching television was assessed using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form.
RESULTS: MVPA was more closely associated with the PACER score than the duration of watching television. Compared with the reference group (i.e. those with the lowest levels of MVPA [
METHOD: A total of 95 men (47 men with intellectual disability; 48 men without intellectual disability), aged 20-39 years, participated in this study. Anthropometric profile, dietary intake, physical activity level and calcaneal speed of sound (SOS) were collected.
RESULTS: The men with intellectual disability had moderate diet quality whilst the men without intellectual disability had poor diet quality. More participants with intellectual disability (97.9%) were inactive compared with their counterparts (10.4%). The SOS value was similar between groups and was lower than the reference. Increasing age and low physical activity level were negative predictors for bone health status.
CONCLUSION: Both young men with and without intellectual disability have suboptimal nutritional and bone health status. Strategies to improve their nutritional and bone health status are warranted.
METHODS: A cross sectional study was conducted in Malaysia and Korea. The study sample consisted of 574 Korean participants and 562 Malaysian participants. The mean age of the participants was 19.8 (SD = 1.29) for the Korean sample and 19.8 (SD = 1.22) for the Malaysian sample. Participants were invited to complete the DB scale with the 10-item and two factors (i.e., perceived benefit and perceived barriers). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and invariance test were conducted on the data by using Mplus 8.3.
RESULTS: The CFA results based on the hypothesised measurement model of two factors and ten items showed sufficient construct validity after adding residual covariance between items within the same factor: CFI = 0.979, TLI = 0.970, SRMR = 0.036, RMSEA = 0.036 for the Korea sample, and CFI = 0.964, TLI = 0.949, SRMR = 0.055, RMSEA = 0.066 for the Malay sample. For the Korea sample, the construct reliability was 0.62 and 0.74 for perceived benefits and perceived barriers respectively. For the Malay sample, the construct reliability was 0.75 and 0.77 for perceived benefits and perceived barriers respectively. The findings presented evidence for measurement and structural invariance of the DB scale for the Korea and Malaysia samples.
CONCLUSION: The DB scale was a valid and reliable measure for assessing exercise behaviour and for making comparisons between Korean and Malaysian samples.
METHODS: A within-subject, repeated-measures, crossover randomized controlled design was conducted among 25 participants (7 males and 18 females) with chronic nonspecific low back pain. All the participants received 3 different types of experimental interventions, which included LPST, the passive automated cycling intervention, and the control intervention randomly, with 48 hours between the sessions. The pressure pain threshold (PPT), hot-cold pain threshold, and pain intensity were estimated before and after the interventions.
RESULTS: Repeated-measures analysis of variance showed that LPST provided therapeutic effects as it improved the PPT beyond the placebo and control interventions (P < 0.01). The pain intensity under the LPST condition was significantly better than that under the passive automated cycling intervention and controlled intervention (P < 0.001). Heat pain threshold under the LPST condition also showed a significant trend of improvement beyond the control (P < 0.05), but no significant effects on cold pain threshold were evident.
CONCLUSIONS: Lumbopelvic stabilization training may provide therapeutic effects by inducing pain modulation through an improvement in the pain threshold and reduction in pain intensity. LPST may be considered as part of the management programs for treatment of chronic low back pain.
METHODS: The original English version of GPPAQ was translated forward and backward into Malay version by experts. The final version of the Malay-translated GPPAQ was then tested for validity and reliability. A cross-sectional study design was performed and systematic random sampling was used to select respondents. Construct validity and internal consistency of the Malay-translated version were tested using exploratory factor analysis and Cronbach's alpha respectively.
RESULTS: Sixty-two male shipyard workers participated in this study. The GPPAQ showed good factor loading values for all items (0.608-0.834). The exploratory principal component factor analysis delineates all seven items into two factors with variance of 41.65%. The Cronbach's alpha value was good with 0.81, 0.84 and 0.76 for total scale, factor 1 and factor 2 respectively.
CONCLUSION: The Malay-translated version of GPPAQ has high psychometric properties. Therefore, it is a valid instrument to assess physical activity among Malaysian working population, particularly in male shipyard workers.