1.A review of teenage pregnancy research in Malaysia
Mohd Azri Mohd Suan ; Adibah Hanim Ismail ; Haliza Ghazali,
The Medical Journal of Malaysia 2015;70(4):214-219
Objective: To summarise the published research on teenage
pregnancy in Malaysia, discuss the impact of the findings on
clinical practice, and identify gaps in teenage pregnancy
research in Malaysia.
Methods: There were 31 articles related to teen pregnancy
found after searching a database dedicated to indexing all
original clinical research data published in Malaysia from
year 2000 to 2014. Twenty-seven articles (including reports
from the National Obstetrics Registry) were selected and
reviewed on the basis of clinical relevance and future
research implications. This literature review has been
divided into eight sections: epidemiology, age at first
marriage, adolescent fertility rate, unmarried childbearing,
risk factors, maternal risks and neonatal outcome, future
plan after delivery, and contraceptive use.
Results: More than 19,000 births to teenage mothers were
recorded each year between 2009 and 2011. Adolescent
fertility rates were recorded at 6 births per 1000 women ages
15–19 years in 2013. Many of these births were from unwed
pregnancies, which accounted for 1.99% of total deliveries.
A majority of young mothers were willing to take care of their
baby, although some of them planned to put their baby up
for adoption. Risk factors for teenage pregnancy were found
to be similar to those published in studies worldwide.
Conclusion: More research is needed to better understand
the issue of teen pregnancy. For the best results,
collaborative studies among nationwide hospitals and
institutions should be the way forward.
Pregnancy in Adolescence
2.Protein and Microbial Determinations on Worn Contact Lenses Cleaned Conventionally Using the Lens2® Automatic Lens Cleaner
Haliza Abdul Mutalib ; Ahmad Rohi Ghazali ; Noor Suhailah Ali
Malaysian Journal of Health Sciences 2008;6(1):11-21
The accumulation of tear film proteins as well as microbes colonization onto worn contact lenses can be eliminated conventionally by mechanical rubbing
during the cleaning process. Lens2® functions in rotation manner to loosen the deposits on the contact lens and has antimicrobial coating to keep lenses
away from contamination. The objective of this study was to determine the efficiency of Lens2® to remove deposited protein and reduce microbial contamination compared to conventional method. Twenty-eight subjects each
wore a pair of contact lens FDA Group 1 (Polymacon, SoftLens®38, Bausch & Lomb) for one month and cleaned them using multipurpose solution (COMPLETE® MoisturePLUSTM, Advanced Medical Optics) separately using two
different methods. The right lens was cleaned conventionally while the left lens
were cleaned using the Lens2®. The control group of thirteen subjects each wore a pair of contact lens for the same period and cleaned both conventionally.
These lenses and its cases were then analyzed for protein deposition using Bichinchoninic Acid Assay (BCA) Kit (Sigma, USA) in 96-well plate. Microbial
contamination was determined by culturing the samples on nutrient agar for bacteria and fungi and non-nutrient agar for amoeba isolation. The mean of total protein on control lenses (17.014 ± 13.246 μg/mL) was not significantly
different from those on the Lens2® (21.623 ± 19.127 μg/mL). There were also low growth numbers of amoeba in each group of samples. Interestingly, there
were no growths of amoeba from all Lens2® samples collected. There was also low growth numbers of bacteria in each sample group whereby Lens2® had the
lowest growth of bacteria. No growth of fungi was obtained from all samples.
The automatic lens cleaner, Lens2® was found to be as efficient as the conventional cleaning method. However, the Lens2® has additional advantage because of its antimicrobial material and need shorter time in the cleaning process as well as easy and effective.