Floods can lead to direct economic and property losses and result not only in physical injuries and deaths but
also in psychological trauma. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a commonly used indicator to evaluate
psychological injuries after disaster. This study aimed to determine the relationship between PTSD prevalence
and related perceived severity of post flood impact by economical, non-economical and flood status severity
domains besides relevant socio-demographic factors according to gender specific analysis. This cross-sectional
study was conducted among community in Kampung Hulu Takir, Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia in 2015 two
weeks after flood. It included a total of 98 males and 110 females aged 18 years and above. Data was
collected by interview-guided questionnaire to determine the prevalence of PTSD. SPSS version 21.0 was used
for analysis of the relationship between socio demographic factors, perceived economic, non-economic and
flood severity with PTSD. Finally chi square test was used to assess the predictors of PTSD according to
gender. The prevalence of PTSD was 9.2% in males and 10.9% in females, giving a total of 10.1%. Significantly
higher prevalence of PTSD was found in severely perceived economic and flood impact categories (33.3% and
23.8% in males; 23.8 % and 37.5% in females) and giving in overall 44.0% and 31.3 % respectively. Effective
PTSD management strategies targeting females post flood victims who severely perceived economically and
nature flood impact should be implemented in order to prevent further consequences of PTSD.
Family planning is an important practice for women as it can help to improve financial and social status. Unwanted pregnancy has negative effects for husband and financial. However, couples married at a late age may not practice family planning because they want to have kids. The aims of this study were to determine the prevalence, factors associated with
husband’s socio demography and decision making in family planning practices among women in reproductive age who attended a polyclinic in Serdang, Malaysia. A cross sectional study was conducted on 245 women with a systematic random sampling. Descriptive analysis, Fisher exact and Chi-square tests were conducted to identify the influence of husband’s socio demographic factors and decision making in family planning practices. The prevalence of family planning practices among married women was moderate (53.9%). Family planning practices among women showed significant relationship with the husband’s socio demography which were husband’s race (p = 0.018), religion (p = 0.008) and making decision in family planning (p = 0.002). The husband’s socio demography showed a significant relationship with the prevalence of the wife practicing family planning. This clearly indicates that the husband is the individual that influence the wife to use contraceptive method. Decision making in family planning by both the husband and wife is important in choosing to use contraceptive method. Health promotion in the concept of health education for male contraceptive method such as pamphlet and booklet is important to promote husband involvement in family planning.
Study site: Klinik Kesihatan Seri Kembangan, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
The communities settled in this traditional flood-prone area are potentially at risk of frequent inundation. This
compelled the affected population to cope or adapt some strategy to reduce the negative impacts on their lives. The
objective of this study was to explore the coping approach among the residents in a flood affected traditional village in
Kuala Nerus, Terengganu and determine its associated factors. A cross sectional study which involved 210 adults who
lived in traditional village houses was conducted from April to May 2015. Universal sampling was applied. This
community-based study was part of the curriculum requirement for undergraduate medical students of UniSZA. The
participants’ background, experience during the recent flood and their coping response were assessed using selfadministered
validated Malay version Brief COPE inventory that consists of three domains (emotion-focused, problemfocused
and less-useful), 14 subscales and 30 items. The mean (SD) age of participants were 46.7(15.54) years with
almost equal sex ratio. Most of the participants were married (78.1%) and unemployed (54.8%). The most common coping
approach applied by the villagers was emotion-focused followed by problem-focused and less-useful coping. There were
four adjusted variables significantly associated with higher total coping score namely awareness on evacuation site
(b=5.38, 95%CI:1.68,9.08, p=0.005), knowledge on health risk of flood (b=3.79, 95%CI:0.92,6.66, p=0.010), discussed on
flood preparedness with family (b=2.50, 95%CI:0.84,4.16, p=0.003) and stored food before flood (b=4.506, 95%CI
1.67,7.34, p=0.002). The emotion-focused coping was the most preferred coping approach among the villagers. A
significant better coping was associated with the villagers who were aware of the gazetted evacuation site and have
knowledge on the flood health hazard. The villagers who planned with their family and practiced storage of adequate
food as part of household preparedness also demonstrated significant higher coping level.
The aim of this study was to develop a new validated questionnaire to assess the health impact of divorce on women. A
cross sectional study was undertaken in a district in Terengganu, using a newly developed self-administered Malay
language questionnaire comprising of six domains and 82 items. The questionnaire was constructed based on the
literature review and discussions with experts. Exploratory factor analysis was applied in construct validity and internal
consistency was used for reliability analysis. A total of 51 respondents were involved in this study. All the consented
divorcees were Malays. The mean (SD) age for the divorced women was 35.8 (10.00). Majority (82.4%) of them had
secondary education. All the final three domains demonstrated Keiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) of more than 0.6, significant
Bartlett’s test of Sphericity and Cronbach’s alpha of more than 0.80. The overall Cronbach’s alpha was excellent (0.920).
The final questionnaire consisted of two domains. Factor loading for all items in each subdomains were satisfactory. The
final functional somatic symptoms domain consisted of 6 subdomains and 19 items with factor loading from 0.402 to
0.914. For emotional instability domain, the final items were 13 items with factor loading from 0.548 to 0.878. The
questionnaire was valid and reliable to be used for functional somatic symptoms and emotional instability domains. It is
useful to assess the health impact and related intervention of divorced women. A confirmatory factor analysis may
further confirm the final model.
During the initial phase of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, there was a critical need to create a valid and reliable screening and surveillance for university staff and students. Consequently, 11 medical experts participated in this cross-sectional study to judge three risk categories of either low, medium, or high, for all 1536 possible combinations of 11 key COVID-19 predictors. The independent experts' judgement on each combination was recorded via a novel dashboard-based rating method which presented combinations of these predictors in a dynamic display within Microsoft Excel. The validated instrument also incorporated an innovative algorithm-derived deduction for efficient rating tasks. The results of the study revealed an ordinal-weighted agreement coefficient of 0.81 (0.79 to 0.82, p-value < 0.001) that reached a substantial class of inferential benchmarking. Meanwhile, on average, the novel algorithm eliminated 76.0% of rating tasks by deducing risk categories based on experts' ratings for prior combinations. As a result, this study reported a valid, complete, practical, and efficient method for COVID-19 health screening via a reliable combinatorial-based experts' judgement. The new method to risk assessment may also prove applicable for wider fields of practice whenever a high-stakes decision-making relies on experts' agreement on combinations of important criteria.
Many insect pests, including the brown planthopper (BPH), undergo windborne migration that is challenging to observe and track. It remains controversial about their migration patterns and largely unknown regarding the underlying genetic basis. By analyzing 360 whole genomes from around the globe, we clarify the genetic sources of worldwide BPHs and illuminate a landscape of BPH migration showing that East Asian populations perform closed-circuit journeys between Indochina and the Far East, while populations of Malay Archipelago and South Asia undergo one-way migration to Indochina. We further find round-trip migration accelerates population differentiation, with highly diverged regions enriching in a gene desert chromosome that is simultaneously the speciation hotspot between BPH and related species. This study not only shows the power of applying genomic approaches to demystify the migration in windborne migrants but also enhances our understanding of how seasonal movements affect speciation and evolution in insects.