METHODS: The qualitative phenomenological approach involving working mothers in Kota Bharu who fulfilled the inclusion criteria and consented to participate in the study were recruited using purposive sampling. Sixteen participants aged 24 to 46 years were interviewed using semi-structured in-depth interviews in the study. All interviews were recorded in digital audio, transcribed verbatim and analyzed using thematic analysis.
FINDINGS: Three main themes emerged from the data analysis: perception of breastfeeding, challenges in breastfeeding, and support for breastfeeding. Two subthemes for perceptions were perception towards breastfeeding and towards infant formula. Challenges had two subthemes too which were related to perceived insufficient milk and breastfeeding difficulty. Where else, two subthemes for support were internal support (spouse and family) and external support (friends, employer, and healthcare staff).
CONCLUSIONS: Maintaining breastfeeding after return to work is challenging for working mothers and majority of them need support to continue breastfeeding practice. Support from their spouses and families' influences working mothers' decision to breastfeed. Employers play a role in providing a support system and facilities in the workplace for mothers to express and store breast milk. Both internal and external support are essential for mothers to overcome challenges in order to achieve success in breastfeeding.
METHODS: Screening periodontal examinations were carried out on all eligible Malay pregnant women in the second trimester of pregnancy attending two randomly selected community maternal and child health clinics in Kota Bharu, Kelantan. Patients with four or more sites with pocket depth 4 mm or higher, and clinical attachment loss 3 mm or higher at the same site with presence of bleeding on probing were diagnosed as having periodontitis in this study. Using this definition, systematic random sampling was utilized for selection of 250 subjects for each exposed and non-exposed group. Of 500 subjects enrolled in the study, 28 (5.6%) were either dropped or lost to follow-up. Of the remaining 472 subjects, 232 with periodontitis were in the exposed group and 240 with healthy periodontium were in the nonexposed group.
RESULTS: The incidence of LBW was 14.2% (95% CI: 9.70-18.75) in women with periodontitis, and 3.3% (95% CI: 1.05-5.62) in women without periodontitis. The relative risk of having LBW infants was 4.27 times higher for women with periodontitis compared with those without periodontitis (95% CI: 2.01-9.04). After adjustment for potential confounders using multiple logistic regression analysis, significant association was found between maternal periodontitis and LBW (OR = 3.84; 95% CI: 1.34-11.05).
CONCLUSION: The results of this study provide additional evidence that pregnant women with periodontitis are at a significantly higher risk of delivering LBW infants.
METHODOLOGY: Total of 13 menopausal women recruited using a combination of purposive and snowball techniques from two sources, tertiary hospital and local communities in the state of Kelantan, Malaysia. The in-depth semi-structured interview guided was used to explore how they perceived supports provided by their husbands. The data were then analysed using a thematic analysis.
RESULTS: Five (5) themes have emerged which comprises of emotional, instrumental, appraisal, guidance, and sexual supports. One of which was a new theme (sexual intimacy support) that had not been existed previously in other literature reviews.
CONCLUSION: Majority of menopausal women perceived the supports provided by their husband were negative, rather than positive supports that they had hoped. These findings suggest that an education program tool for husbands as a support person is much needed to ensure women walk through the menopause phase in a more meaningful life.
OBJECTIVE: We determined the agreement of cytological diagnoses made on samples collected by women themselves (selfsampling) versus samples collected by physicians (Physician sampling).
MATERIALS AND METHODS: We invited women volunteers to undergo two procedures; cervical selfsampling using the Evalyn brush and physician sampling using a Cervex brush. The women were shown a video presentation on how to take their own cervical samples before the procedure. The samples taken by physicians were taken as per routine testing (Gold Standard). All samples were subjected to Thin Prep monolayer smears. The diagnoses made were according to the Bethesda classification. The results from these two sampling methods were analysed and compared.
RESULTS: A total of 367 women were recruited into the study, ranging from 22 to 65 years age. There was a significant good agreement of the cytological diagnoses made on the samples from the two sampling methods with the Kappa value of 0.568 (p=0.040). Using the cytological smears taken by physicians as the gold standard, the sensitivity of selfsampling was 71.9% (95% CI:70.972.8), the specificity was 86.6% (95% CI:85.7 87.5), the positive predictive value was 74.2% (95% CI:73.375.1) and the negative predictive value was 85.1% (95% CI: 84.286.0). Selfsampling smears (22.9%) allowed detection of microorganisms better than physicians samples (18.5%).
CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that samples taken by women themselves (selfsampling) and physicians have good diagnostic agreement. Selfsampling could be the method of choice in countries in which the coverage of women attending clinics for screening for cervical cancer is poor.
METHODS: We conducted a randomised, double blinded, two-armed parallel study comparing 20 g/day of Tualang Honey versus 20 g/day Honey Cocktail among postmenopausal women aged 45-65 years. The cardiovascular parameters and anthropometrics measurements were assessed at baseline, 6 months, and 12 months of the intervention.
RESULTS: 100 subjects were successfully randomised into the groups. There was a significant decrease in the diastolic blood pressure from 77.92 mmHg at baseline to 73.45 mmHg at 12 months (F-statistic = 2.55, p-value = 0.047) in the Tualang Honey group compared to Honey Cocktail. There was also a significant decrease in the fasting blood sugar from 6.11 mmol/L at baseline to 5.71 mmol/L at 12 months (F-statistic = 4.03, p-value = 0.021) in the Tualang Honey group compared to the Honey Cocktail group. The body mass index remained unchanged at 27 kg/m2 (F-statistic = 1.60, p-value = 0.010) throughout 12 months of the intervention in the Honey Cocktail group.
CONCLUSION: Subjects who received Honey Cocktail showed remarkable effects on body mass index. However, Tualang Honey supplementation showed superior effect in lowering diastolic blood pressure and fasting blood sugar compared to Honey Cocktail. Further studies are required to ascertain the underlying mechanism(s) of Tualang Honey and Honey Cocktail on each observed parameter.