Introduction: Childhood obesity becomes a global epidemic with the majority are living in developing countries. Obese children are at risk of becoming obese adults with non-communicable diseases, which may further lead to huge economic burden for the affected countries. The study objectives were to determine the biosocial background contributing overweight and obesity among preschoolers in Putrajaya (2017) - sociodemographic, pre-and perinatal factors, feeding and weaning practices. Methods: Cross-sectional study was performed using cluster random sampling among 897 preschoolers, whose anthropometric body weights and heights were measured. The calculated BMI was used to determine their obese status based on WHO Growth Standards 2006 and Reference 2007. Their mothers were distributed with self-administered, validated, and pre-tested questionnaires regarding their children’s first two-years-of-life experience. Chi Square test was used for bivariate categorical analysis, Independent T-test and Mann Whitney U test for continuous data analysis. Multivariate binary logistic regression was executed to determine predictors of child obesity. Results: The prevalence of obese children was 7.4%, which can be predicted by the increase in child’s age (Adjusted Odd Ratio: 2.619; 95%CI: 1.435 – 4.780), mothers with higher level of education (AOR: 3.896; 95%CI: 1.127 – 13.470), and higher maternal BMI (AOR: 1.132; 95%CI: 1.057 – 1.213). Conclusion: Three predictors of child obesity can be derived from sociodemographic and pre-and perinatal factors. Further application on these predictors in more targeted interventions and policies need to be considered to reduce the prevalence of obesity and related non-communicable diseases in the country.
Introduction: Adolescent aggression has become a serious public health problem with the escalating juvenile cases and violence among secondary school students by inflicting harm to others. The objective of this study was to deter-mine the biopsychosocial predictors of adolescent aggression among Form Four students in Hulu Langat. Methods: Cross-sectional study was conducted by proportionate population sampling method among Form Four students from all public secondary schools in Hulu Langat. Pre-tested questionnaires distributed to measure students’ ag-gression, demographic (ethnicity, family income), biological (sex, head injury, nutritional deficiency, breakfast skip-ping), psychological (attitude towards aggression, normative beliefs to aggression, personality trait, and emotional intelligence), and social factors (family environment, single parent status, domestic violence, peer deviant affiliation, alcohol, smoking, and substance abuse). Data was analysed using multivariate analysis to determine the significant predictors. Results: 480 students from four randomly selected schools participated in the study with response rate of 96.5%. The median aggression score was low, which was 23.00 (IQR=12.00). From simple linear regression, 15 factors had significant relationship with adolescent aggression. The predictors of adolescent aggression were lower family income, Malay ethnicity, nutritional deficiency, attitude towards aggression, and peer deviant affiliation (F [8, 244] =15.980, p-value
Introduction: Adolescent aggression is an important public health concern with escalating prevalence of juvenile cases and violence among these age groups including robbery, homicide, and gang fights. The objectives of this study protocol are to determine the biopsychosocial predictors and explore the contextual factors of adolescent ag- gression among secondary school students in Hulu Langat. Methods: Explanatory mixed method study design will be used, consist of quantitative cross-sectional study followed by basic qualitative study. Proportionate population sampling among Form 4 secondary school students from selected public secondary schools in Hulu Langat will be executed. Questionnaires will be distributed to 481 students on aggression as the dependent variable, and several independent variables: demographic (ethnicity, family income), biological (sex, head injury, nutritional deficiency, breakfast skipping), psychological (attitude and normative beliefs, personality trait, emotional intelligence), and so- cial factors (family environment, single parent status, domestic violence, peer deviant affiliation, alcohol, smoking, substance abuse). Subsequently, participants with moderate to high aggression scores will be further explored on the contextual factors of adolescent aggression by in-depth interview. Multiple linear regression will be executed using SPSS to determine significant predictors whereas thematic analysis will be applied for qualitative data analysis on the context of adolescent aggression. Both findings will be further integrated and discussed to give comprehensive description on the phenomena. Conclusion: Better knowledge and understanding on adolescent aggression may generate new framework to drive more effective preventive strategies and unravel adolescent aggressive related Pub- lic Health problems.
Multi-feature methods are able to contribute to a more effective method compared to single-feature
methods since feature fusion methods will be able to close the gap that exists in the single-feature
methods. This paper presents a feature fusion method, which focuses on extracting colour and shape features for content-based image retrieval (CBIR). The colour feature is extracted based on the proposed Multi-resolution Joint Auto Correlograms (MJAC), while the shape information is obtained through the proposed Extended Generalised Ridgelet-Fourier (EGRF). These features are fused together through a proposed integrated scheme. The feature fusion method has been tested on the SIMPLIcity image database, where several retrieval measurements are utilised to compare the effectiveness of the proposed method with few other comparable methods. The retrieval results show that the proposed Integrated Colour-shape (ICS) descriptor has successfully obtained the best overall retrieval performance in all the retrieval measurements as compared to the benchmark methods, which include precision (53.50%), precision at 11 standard recall levels (52.48%), and rank (17.40).
Aggression is one of the most common Paediatric Psychiatric emergency problems presented in healthcare services with major public health impacts. The aim of this review is to determine the psychosocial predictors of adolescent aggression. Systematic review on observational study designs were conducted. Recent five years English published journal articles (2014-2018) were searched in three databases (Science Direct, PubMed and EBSCO) from April 2018 until May 2018. The final 15 articles (seven prospective cohort, eight cross-sectional studies) were included in the systematic review. Psychological predictors were mainly on the personality traits and emotional problems experienced by the adolescents including callous-unemotional traits, hostility, anger, and low empathy. Self-control was found to be protective against adolescent aggression. Social predictors that contribute to the aggression among adolescents according to the highest reported number of articles were peer influence, followed by school climate, substance use, neighbourhood influence, family, and parent factors. In conclusion, psychosocial predictors of adolescent aggression include both Psychological Factors; mainly personality traits and emotional problems, and Social Factors; mainly peer influence and substance use. This warrants for more holistic approach in dealing with aggressive adolescents that can be applied in more targeted and focused intervention strategy deliveries.