Displaying publications 1 - 20 of 21 in total

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  1. Toh, Teck Hock
    Int J Public Health Res, 2011;1(2):57-65.
    MyJurnal
    Developmental disabilities in young children are common, and the prevalence is estimated as high as 0.1-1.75% in the children population for each disabilities. With increasing awareness and health expectation, more children with Developmental disabilities are presenting to health care professionals, and at earlier age. Literatures also suggested the importance of early intervention programme in determining the outcome of this group of children. Therefore, it is vital for health professionals who have direct contact with young children are competent in detecting children with possible Developmental disabilities, and have the basic knowledge about some of the common disorders in order to discuss the issues with the parents. It is also important to work with the various resources available in the local community, such as non-governmental organisations for children with special needs, schools offering special education programmes and inclusive classes, and the allied health who provide cares to this group of young children and their family. A lot of information are also available online, and may be offered to help parents gaining more understanding regarding these Developmental disabilities.
  2. Deborah Xinyi Yong, Tze-Peng Wong
    MyJurnal
    “Following the child’s lead” and “collaborative consultation with parents” are solidly grounded in the best practice of
    early language intervention. However, the success of these two practices are based on assumptions that they are valued by
    families and that they can be feasibly implemented by the attending speech-language pathologist (SLP). Such assumptions
    can be unjustified in cultures that value the use of “adult-guided instructions” over following the child’s lead and when
    the work setting of the SLP does not readily accommodate those practices. This article takes the form of a position paper.
    Through review of the literature, the paper (1) identifies the research-cultural practice gap in early language intervention
    in Malaysia; (2) positions the two research-informed practices – following the child’s lead and collaborative consultation
    with parents, on the continuum of intrusiveness in early language intervention; and (3) proposes the techniques of Milieu
    Teaching as an approach to bridge the research-cultural practice gap in Malaysia.
  3. Rafidah, B., Muhammad Najib, M.A., Muhammad Radhi, A.M., Ismail, M.S.
    MyJurnal
    This case series reports four patients who used religion and spirituality to relieve symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following motor vehicle accidents. Their symptoms subsided after a few weeks and the recovery is sustained after one month. This demonstrates that in a country where psychological help is still scarce and religion is central to its culture, intervention based on spirituality and religion can be used as an alternative early intervention to relieve symptoms of PTSD and hence protects them from developing the condition.
  4. Marzo RR, Khanal P, Shrestha S, Mohan D, Myint PK, Su TT
    Front Public Health, 2023;11:1193789.
    PMID: 37435519 DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1193789
    INTRODUCTION: Population demography across the globe shows an increasing trend in the aging population due to better healthcare, improved nutrition, advanced health-related technology, and decreased fertility rate. Despite these advancements, there remains a knowledge gap in understanding the association between active aging determinants and quality of life (QoL) among older adults, particularly within diverse cultural contexts, which has not been adequately explored in previous research. Therefore, understanding the association between active aging determinants and QoL can help policymakers plan early interventions or programs to assist future older adults in both aging actively and optimizing their quality of life (QoL), as these two factors have a bidirectional relationship.

    OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to review evidence regarding the association between active aging and quality of life (QoL) among older adults and to determine the most widely used study designs and measurement instruments in studies conducted between 2000 and 2020.

    METHODS: Relevant studies were identified by a systematic search of four electronic databases and cross-reference lists. Original studies examining the association between active aging and QoL in individuals aged 60 years or older were considered. The quality of the included studies and the direction and consistency of the association between active aging and QoL were assessed.

    RESULTS: A total of 26 studies met the inclusion criteria and were included in this systematic review. Most studies reported a positive association between active aging and QoL among older adults. Active aging had a consistent association with various QoL domains including physical environment, health and social services, social environment, economic, personal, and behavioral determinants.

    CONCLUSION: Active aging had a positive and consistent association with several QoL domains among older adults, backing the notion that the better the active aging determinants, the better the QoL among older adults. Considering the broader literature, it is necessary to facilitate and encourage the active participation of older adults in physical, social, and economic activities for the maintenance and/or improvement of QoL. Identifying other possible determinants and enhancing the methods to improve those determinants may help improve the QoL among older adults.

  5. Vong E, Wilson L, Lincoln M
    J Fluency Disord, 2016 09;49:29-39.
    PMID: 27638190 DOI: 10.1016/j.jfludis.2016.07.003
    PURPOSE: This study investigated the outcomes of implementing the Lidcombe Program, an evidence-based early intervention for stuttering, with four preschool children in Malaysia. Early stuttering intervention is currently underdeveloped in Malaysia, where stuttering treatment is often more assertion-based than evidence-based. Therefore, introducing an evidence-based early stuttering intervention is an important milestone for Malaysian preschoolers who stutter.

    METHOD: The participants ranged from 3 years 3 months to 4 years 9 months at the start of the study. Beyond-clinic speech samples were obtained at 1 month and 1 week pretreatment and immediately post-Stage 1, and at 1 month, 3 months, 6 months and 12 months post-Stage 1.

    RESULTS: Two participants, who were bilingual, achieved near-zero levels of stuttering at 12 months posttreatment. Near zero levels of stuttering were also present in their untreated languages. One participant withdrew due to reasons not connected with the research or treatment. The remaining participant, who presented with severe stuttering, completed Stage 1 but had some relapse in Stage 2 and demonstrated mild stuttering 12 months post-Stage 1.

    CONCLUSIONS: The outcomes were achieved without the need to significantly adapt Lidcombe Program procedures to Malaysian culture. Further research to continue evaluation of the Lidcombe Program with Malaysian families and to estimate proportion of those who will respond is warranted.

  6. Lee PY, Ong TA, Chua CB, Lei CCM, Teh GC
    Malays Fam Physician, 2009;4(1):15-8.
    PMID: 25606152 MyJurnal
    INTRODUCTION: Ketamine is frequently abused nowadays as a recreational drug. Case reports are emerging since 2007 to describe a new clinical entity of severe bladder dysfunction associated with chronic abuse of street ketamine.
    CLINICAL PRESENTATION: Severe lower urinary tract symptoms of urinary frequency and urgency which are refractory to conventional treatment. Quality of life is adversely affected as a consequence. Chronic kidney disease will develop in advanced cases. Investigation findings: The urine is sterile on culture. Ultrasound will show reduced bladder capacity with thickened bladder wall. In advanced stage, hydronephrosis and renal impairment will develop.
    TREATMENT: Patients should be advised to stop street ketamine use immediately. Anticholinergic medication could be tried to alleviate the symptoms. Refractory cases with dilatation of the upper urinary tract might need urinary diversion.
    CONCLUSION: Awareness of this new condition is essential in diagnosis. Early intervention offers better treatment outcome.
    KEYWORDS: Ketamine; bladder dysfunction; lower urinary tract symptoms
  7. Tan SH, Chong AW, Prepageran N
    Iran J Otorhinolaryngol, 2015 Sep;27(82):391-4.
    PMID: 26568944
    INTRODUCTION: Atypical infratemporal fossa infections are rare and potentially fatal.

    CASE REPORT: A case of an aspergillosis localized in the infratemporal fossa and another case of tuberculosis of the infratemporal fossa originating from the maxillary sinus, is described. The first patient was immunocompromised and showed symptoms of facial numbness; whereas the other was an immunocompetent man who complained of trigeminal neuralgia type pain. It was difficult to differentiate between infection and tumour despite the utilization of computed tomography scans and magnetic resonance imaging.

    CONCLUSION: These cases illustrate the need for a high index of suspicion; in addition to endoscopic confirmation and histopathology to establish precise diagnosis and early intervention.

  8. Juslina O, Leelavathi M, Khairani O, Tuti Iryani MD
    Malays Fam Physician, 2011;6(2):66-67.
    MyJurnal
    Adolescent smoking is an emerging health concern in the developing countries. A cross-sectional study is conducted to determine the prevalence and smoking behaviour of adolescents in Sarawak. The prevalence of smoking is 32.8% with mean age of initiation at 12.8±1.9 years. Most (67.2%) adolescents are experimental smokers and the majority (67.9%) did not smoke on a daily basis. Branded cigarettes are preferred (83.1%) and the cigarettes are obtained either from friends (49.1%) or self purchased (43.6%). Students prefer to smoke at their friend’s house (31.0%) or at school (25.3%). Smoking prevalence among adolescents in Sarawak is high and begins early. Early intervention on smoking prevention and risk awareness is perhaps more effective if initiated before the age of 12 years.
  9. Muhamad Saiful Bahri Yusoff, Mohd Jamil Yaacob, Naing, Nyi Nyi, Ab Rahman Esa
    MyJurnal
    Background: One of important educational climate roles is to provide an environment that promotes positive development of medical students' psychological wellbeing during training. Unfortunately, many studies have reported that educational climate in medical education are not favourable to them. Therefore, it is a real need for a simple, valid, reliable and stable tool that will help medical schools to screen psychological wellbeing of their students so that early intervention could be done.
    Objective: This study aimed to explore the psychometric properties of the Medical Student Wellbeing Index (MSWBI) to measure psychological wellbeing at different interval of measurements in a cohort of medical students.

    Method: A prospective study was done on a cohort of medical students. MSWBI was administered to the medical students at five different intervals. The confirmatory factor analysis, Cronbach's alpha and intra-class correlation analysis were applied to measure construct validity, internal consistency and agreement level at different interval of measurements.

    Result: A total of 153 (89.5%) medical students responded completely to the MSWBI. The MSWBI showed that the one-factor model had acceptable values for most of the goodness of fit indices signified its construct was stable across multiple measurements. The overall Cronbach's alpha values for the MSWBI at the five measurements ranged between 0.69 and 0.78. The ICC coefficient values for the MSWBI total score was 0.58 to 0.59.

    Conclusion: This study found that the MSWBI had stable psychometric properties as a screening tool for measuring psychological wellbeing among medical students at different time and occasions. Continued research is required to refine and verify its psychometric credentials at different educational settings.
  10. Idris, I.B., Shamsudin K., Aniza, I, Khairani, O, Rahmah M.A.
    MyJurnal
    Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric diagnosis made when someone including children who experiences traumatic stressor. Those who are exposed to a more severe trauma have highest level of PTSD. The aim of this study was to measure the prevalence of PTSD and its associated factors among 219 children who were affected by a form of natural disaster which is the tsunami waves in a rural area in Malaysia. A cross sectional study was carried out among children aged 10-12 years 6 months after the traumatic event. Child Posttraumatic Stress Disorder –Reaction Index (CPTSD-RI) was used as a screening instrument which was answered by the affected children through a self-administered questionnaire. Forty six percent of these children had PTSD symptoms; 31.1% of these children had mild, 11.4% had moderate, 3.7% had severe PTSD and none had very severe PTSD. Result also showed that 91.8% had re-experiencing symptoms, 28.3% had numbing/avoidance symptoms and 49.3% had hyperarousal symptoms. Children with low social support (Adj OR = 2.3 (95% CI: = 1.3- 4.2)), and children who experienced deaths among someone close to them (Adj OR = 3.7 (95% CI =1.2 - 11.5)) were more likely to have symptoms of PTSD. This showed that children are at higher risk of developing PTSD as early as 6 months after the event and thus early intervention should be offered to them. Future longitudinal study can be carried out among affected children to assess whether these PTSD symptoms persist over time.
  11. Sekaran SD
    MyJurnal
    Dengue is an arthropod borne disease that has become important worldwide. There is still no specific drug available for treatment and also no protective vaccine that can be used. As such, specific diagnosis is essential to enable good management and prevention of large outbreaks. Diagnosis today in many countries is still based on serology though the detection of NS1 has slowly become incorporated. Diagnosis is critical for early intervention with specific preventive health measures to prevent fatalities and also to curtail spread and reduce economic losses. Serological assays mainly detect IgM which now as a single test is invalid unless a second sample is taken to confirm. As such to effectively diagnose dengue at all stages of infection, assays with two or more markers are required or two samples taken a few days apart. Other commonly used tests include NS1 detection, nucleic acid amplification and IgG detection. However the sensitivities of the current commercial kits vary quite considerably and have to be interpreted with caution. Hence knowledge of this disease is essential when conducting diagnostics for dengue.
  12. Azlin Baharudin, Lotfi Anuar, Suriati Saini, Osman Che Bakar, Rosdinom Razali, Nik Ruzyanei Nik Jaafar
    Sains Malaysiana, 2013;42(3):417-421.
    The main objectives in this study were to determine the percentage of psychiatric comorbidity among treatment seeking opioid dependents in Klang Valley. A cross sectional study of opioid dependence patients was conducted between December 2007 and May 2008 at ten community-based drug substitution therapy clinics in Klang Valley. A total of 204 opioid dependence patients participated in the study using the structured clinical interview for DSM-IV Axis I disorders
    (SCID-I) as its instruments. The percentage of psychiatric comorbidity among opioid dependents was 43.6%. Major depressive disorder had the highest prevalence at 32.6%, followed by dysthymia at 23.6% and Panic disorder at 14.6%. Psychiatric comorbidity were found to have significant differences (p<0.05) in connection with history of polysubstance abuse, previous history of court sentences (legal status) and family history of psychiatric illnesses. This study showed that the percentage of psychiatric comorbidity is high among the opioid dependents. It highlights the urgent need for the psychiatric comorbidity to be assessed and early intervention is important for this group of patients.
  13. Noorsuzana Mohd Shariff, Naim Faiz Ahmad Imran, Nurshafiqa Aqila Abdul Wahab, Zaid Abd Halim, Siti Hawa Hashim, Nizuwan Azman, et al.
    MyJurnal
    Infant feeding is thought to modulate cardiovascular risk factors such as obesity, hypertension, hyperglycemia, and dyslipidemia. This possible association between patterns of feeding with development of cardiovascular disease later in life provides the opportunity for early intervention and prevention strategies. Among all the feeding methods applied, breastfeeding is thought to be the best method and is said to be attributable to future health benefits. How- ever, current evidence from the literature is weak and inconsistent to advocate risk factors management. Therefore, this narrative review aims to provide current findings in assessing the association of breastfeeding pattern and risk of developing cardiovascular diseases later in life. We searched three databases (MEDLINE, PubMed and Google Scholar) from year 2000 to 11 July 2018. Findings on the association between breastfeeding and cardiovascular risk factors are equivocal, although positive trend of beneficial effects of breastfeeding in reducing risk of cardiovascular diseases in adulthood was reported in majority of the studies. Future research should address all limitations that were identified by previous studies such as bias of study design and heterogeneity of samples to establish the association between breastfeeding pattern and cardiovascular disease in later life.
  14. Mohammed Nawi A, Ismail A, Abdullah S
    Iran J Public Health, 2013 Sep;42(9):996-1006.
    PMID: 26060660
    BACKGROUND:
    Child with Down's syndrome is an individual who is suitable and eligible to receive early intervention services. This study aimed to measure the family outcome among parents of Down syndrome children, on the impact of receiving early intervention and identify the factors influencing it.

    METHODS:
    A cross sectional was conducted from April 2009 until January 2010 with a total of 125 parents of children with Down syndrome. There are five domains of family outcomes that has been studied which are understanding the strengths, abilities and special needs of children, knowing the rights and talk on children behalf, assisting the child to grow and learn, having a support system and be involved in the community. Children with Down syndrome aged four to 15 years was chosen as the respondents when they were accompanying their children in seven rehabilitation centers or during house visits.

    RESULTS:
    Family outcomes among parents of Down syndrome children who receive early intervention is better, 67.3 percent, compared to parents of Down syndrome children who receive late intervention, 41.4 percent. There are significant relationship between the acceptance level of intervention, parents education level, family income and the family outcomes. Parents of children who receive early intervention were more positive in understanding the strengths, abilities and special needs of their children compared to other family outcomes.

    CONCLUSION:
    Families whom children received early intervention had indirectly proved the importance and benefit of early intervention, not only for children with special needs, but for their family as well.

    KEYWORDS:
    Down syndrome children; intervention; special needs
  15. Joginder Singh S, Iacono T, Gray KM
    Int J Speech Lang Pathol, 2011 Oct;13(5):389-98.
    PMID: 21888557 DOI: 10.3109/17549507.2011.603429
    The aim of this study was to explore the assessment, intervention, and family-centred practices of Malaysian and Australian speech-language pathologists (SLPs) when working with children with developmental disabilities who are pre-symbolic. A questionnaire was developed for the study, which was completed by 65 SLPs from Malaysia and 157 SLPs from Australia. Data reduction techniques were used prior to comparison of responses across questionnaire items. Results indicated that SLPs relied mostly on informal assessments. Malaysian and Australian SLPs differed significantly in terms of obtaining information from outside the clinic to inform assessment. When providing intervention, SLPs focused mostly on improving children's pre-verbal skills. A third of Australian SLPs listed the introduction of some form of symbolic communication as an early intervention goal, compared to only a small percentage of Malaysian SLPs. Regarding family involvement, SLPs most often involved mothers, with fathers and siblings being involved to a lesser extent. Overall, it appeared that practices of Malaysian SLPs had been influenced by developments in research, although there were some areas of service delivery that continued to rely on traditional models. Factors leading to similarities and differences in practice of SLPs from both countries as well as clinical and research implications of the study are discussed.
    Matched MeSH terms: Early Intervention (Education)*
  16. Teng TS, Ishak NL, Subha ST, Bakar SA
    EXCLI J, 2019;18:223-228.
    PMID: 31217785 DOI: 10.17179/excli2018-1971
    CSF leak in penetrating skull base injury is relatively rare compared to close head injury involving skull base fracture. We report a 5-year-old boy presented with epistaxis and impacted pencil into the left nostril. The child was hemodynamically stable without any neurological deficit. Intraoperatively, there was a nasal septal defect posteriorly with anterior skull base fracture associated with CSF leak. The pencil was removed from the left nostril and the CSF leak was repaired using harvested abdominal fat under the same setting. Computed Tomography (CT) of the brain showed right cribriform plate fracture with small pneumocranium. Postoperatively, a prophylactic antibiotic was given for seven days and he was discharged well. Subsequent clinic visits up to one-year postoperative period showed no recurrence of the CSF leak. History taking, physical examination and CT imaging give valuable diagnostic values in managing the penetrating skull base injury. Early intervention for removal of the foreign body and repair of the CSF leak is advocated to prevent catastrophic complication.
  17. Ghatwary N, Ahmed A, Grisan E, Jalab H, Bidaut L, Ye X
    J Med Imaging (Bellingham), 2019 Jan;6(1):014502.
    PMID: 30840732 DOI: 10.1117/1.JMI.6.1.014502
    Barrett's esophagus (BE) is a premalignant condition that has an increased risk to turn into esophageal adenocarcinoma. Classification and staging of the different changes (BE in particular) in the esophageal mucosa are challenging since they have a very similar appearance. Confocal laser endomicroscopy (CLE) is one of the newest endoscopy tools that is commonly used to identify the pathology type of the suspected area of the esophageal mucosa. However, it requires a well-trained physician to classify the image obtained from CLE. An automatic stage classification of esophageal mucosa is presented. The proposed model enhances the internal features of CLE images using an image filter that combines fractional integration with differentiation. Various features are then extracted on a multiscale level, to classify the mucosal tissue into one of its four types: normal squamous (NS), gastric metaplasia (GM), intestinal metaplasia (IM or BE), and neoplasia. These sets of features are used to train two conventional classifiers: support vector machine (SVM) and random forest. The proposed method was evaluated on a dataset of 96 patients with 557 images of different histopathology types. The SVM classifier achieved the best performance with 96.05% accuracy based on a leave-one-patient-out cross-validation. Additionally, the dataset was divided into 60% training and 40% testing; the model achieved an accuracy of 93.72% for the testing data using the SVM. The presented model showed superior performance when compared with four state-of-the-art methods. Accurate classification is essential for the intestinal metaplasia grade, which most likely develops into esophageal cancer. Not only does our method come to the aid of physicians for more accurate diagnosis by acting as a second opinion, but it also acts as a training method for junior physicians who need practice in using CLE. Consequently, this work contributes to an automatic classification that facilitates early intervention and decreases samples of required biopsy.
  18. Norafidah, A.R., Azmawati, M.N, Norfazilah, A.
    MyJurnal
    The population with normal body mass index (BMI) but with abdominal obesity are most of the time the ‘neglected’ population in terms of health interventions. The aim of this study is to study the prevalence of abdominal obesity and to explore the factors causing abdominal obesity by using waist circumference (WC) measurement. A cross sectional study was conducted among a group of respondents in Tanjung Karang, Selangor, Malaysia from January until June 2010, among those aged 18 years old and above, to explore the demographic (gender and ethnics), lifestyle factors (physical activity, carbohydrate intake and smoking status) and measurement of body weight, height and waist circumference. A total of 629 subjects with normal BMI were studied. The prevalence of abdominal obesity was 36.1% based on WC (40.0% males and 70.0% females). The predictor model revealed that being non-Malay (aOR = 2.1; 95% CI: 1.35-3.20) and being female (aOR = 3.6; 95% CI: 2.51-5.06) were the associated factors of having abdominal obesity in normal BMI population. In conclusion, females and non-Malay were factors that were found to be associated with abdominal obesity in normal BMI population. This is important in targeting this vulnerable population with risk factors that can develop non communicable diseases for early interventions.
  19. Al-Namnam NM, Hariri F, Thong MK, Rahman ZA
    J Oral Biol Craniofac Res, 2018 08 29;9(1):37-39.
    PMID: 30202723 DOI: 10.1016/j.jobcr.2018.08.007
    Crouzon syndrome exhibits considerable phenotypic heterogeneity, in the aetiology of which genetics play an important role. FGFR2 mediates extracellular signals into cells and the mutations in the FGFR2 gene cause this syndrome occurrence. Activated FGFs/FGFR2 signaling disrupts the balance of differentiation, cell proliferation, and apoptosis via its downstream signal pathways. However, very little is known about the cellular and molecular factors leading to severity of this phenotype. Revealing the molecular pathology of craniosynostosis will be a great value for genetic counselling, diagnosis, prognosis and early intervention programs. This mini-review summarizes the fundamental and recent scientific literature on genetic disorder of Crouzon syndrome and presents a graduated strategy for the genetic approach, diagnosis and the management of this complex craniofacial defect.
  20. Dominic NA, Thirunavuk Arasoo VJ, Botross NP, Riad A, Biding C, Ramadas A
    Asian Pac J Cancer Prev, 2018 Jul 27;19(7):1809-1815.
    PMID: 30049192
    Background: There is a lack of evidence on the effectiveness of multifaceted group-based interventions to improve psychological well-being and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of breast cancer (BCa) survivors in Malaysia. This study is aimed at assessing the effectiveness of such intervention program among the BCa survivors. Materials and Methods: This was a group-based intervention program with pre- and post-test design, carried out among BCa survivors (n=37) who were members of Breast Cancer Support Group Centre, Johor Bahru. A validated self-administered questionnaire was used to assess the impact of the program on psychosocial well-being and HRQOL of the participants. Results: The mean age of BCa survivors was 58.1 years (SD=9.7), with mean age at diagnosis of 49.9 years (SD=9.6). Majority of them were of Chinese ethnicity, married and had secondary level education, but were unemployed. More than 86% of them were diagnosed to have early BCa diagnosis and have since completed the treatment. There were significant decreases in median depression (p=0.001), anxiety (p<0.001) and stress (p<0.001) scores at post-intervention. More than 85% of the participants rated themselves to have a good or very good QOL at post-intervention, as opposed to 75.9% at pre-intervention. Significant improvements in several HR-QOL domain scores were seen, with psychological score improving the most (p<0.001), followed by social relationship (p=0.002) and physical health (p=0.004). Conclusions: Group-based multifaceted intervention can be a viable solution to improve psychosocial well-being of BCa survivors.
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