BACKGROUND: Breastmilk is the best nourishment for an infant for the first 6 months of life. Health professionals like medical doctors and dentists can help promote and support exclusive breastfeeding. We aimed to assess knowledge, attitudes, exposure, and future intentions toward exclusive breastfeeding among final year medical and dental students at Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kelantan, Malaysia. METHODS: A total of 162 students participated in this cross-sectional study that was conducted between May and September of 2015. Self-administered questionnaires were used to collect the variables of interest. RESULTS: Most students knew exclusive breastfeeding is recommended for the first 6 months of life (98.1%). However, some students incorrectly thought formula milk can be given if the infant appears hungry after having been breastfed (61.7%). Additionally, some incorrectly thought expressed breastmilk can be warmed on direct heat (47.5%) and left-over expressed milk can be re-stored (60.5%). Most students agreed that exclusive breastfeeding is easier to practice than formula feeding and that it is the best choice for working mothers. Most students (93.2%) intend to breastfeed their children, and this intention was significantly associated with their experience being breastfed as infants and attitudes toward exclusive breastfeeding. CONCLUSION: Generally, final year medical and dental students have favorable attitudes and future intentions toward exclusive breastfeeding, although some of them lacked knowledge about certain important aspects of the practice. Past experience of being exclusively breastfed and a more positive attitude toward the practice were associated with their future intentions to practice exclusive breastfeeding.
Breast Feeding ; Child ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Dentists ; Health Occupations ; Hot Temperature ; Humans ; Infant ; Intention ; Malaysia ; Milk ; Mothers ; Students, Dental

Introduction: The aim of this study was to assess the level of knowledge, attitude, and practice towards dengue prevention among students at Tan Sri Mustaffa Babjee College, Universiti Putra Malaysia. Method: An analytical cross-sectional survey was performed with 214 respondents from Tan Sri Mustaffa Babjee College residents using a simple random sampling method. A self-administered validated questionnaire was distributed to respondents through student email and Whatsapp phone application. The acquired data was then analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences Software (SPSS) Version 27. Results: The majority of the students had moderate knowledge (17.14 ± 2.510), attitude (30.69 ± 4.065) and practice (7.97 ± 2.224) towards dengue prevention. The year of study was the only sociodemographic characteristic that had a significant association with knowledge (χ2 = 18.288, P = 0.013), attitude (χ2 = 18.526, P = 0.010) and practice (χ2 = 19.194, P = 0.014) of dengue prevention, while the factor of the study programme (χ2 = 31.599, P = 0.002) were found to have significantly associated with the level of knowledge. Conclusion: There was a significant association between dengue prevention knowledge and practice (χ2 = 11.838, P = 0.019), but no significant association between knowledge and attitude, as well as practice and attitude. College management should organize and regularly implement the dengue control activities that focus on both preventive action and expanding awareness of dengue prevention to ensure lifetime action and effective methods in controlling dengue.

Introduction: Benzodiazepines (BZDs) are commonly prescribed to psychiatric patients. However, there have been few studies evaluating BZD refusal among patients with psychiatric disorders during the dispensing process. Thus, this study aimed to determine 1) the factors associated with BZD refusal during the dispensing process and to determine 2) the association between BZD refusal and psychiatric medication adherence among patients diagnosed with depression or schizophrenia. Method: This study was conducted at the Specialist Clinic Pharmacy, Jerantut Hospital, Malaysia, from May 2018 to June 2018. BZD refusal status was determined after the dispensing process, and general information on BZD was determined using a questionnaire developed by the researchers. Medication adherence was assessed using the Malaysian Medication Adherence Scale (MALMAS). Results: Overall, 75 patients with psychiatric disorders participate in the study. Participants had been on BZD treatment for a mean of 32.8± 21.6 months. The BZD refusal rate was 38.7%. BZD refusal was significantly associated with several factors. A one-year increase in age resulted in increased odds of BZD refusal by 1.16 times (95% CI 1.05-1.27). Other factors were male gender (OR,9.14; 95% CI, 1.17-71.27), being single (OR,15.07; 95% CI, 1.12-184.28), the diagnosis of schizophrenia (OR,13.45; 95% CI, 1.75-10.33) and not having history of illicit drug use (OR,20.63; 95% CI, 2.49-171.0). Medication adherence was not associated with BZD refusal. Conclusion: BZD refusal was significantly associated with demographic factors such as increased age, male gender and being single and diagnosis factors namely schizophrenia diagnosis and not having history of illicit substance use. Thus, the need for BZD in these groups of patients should be reviewed regularly.

Aims: To investigate the influence of carbon sources and additives/surfactants on the mycelium growth and exopolysaccharides (EPS) production, including the morphology during submerged cultivation of Pleurotus ostreatus in the minimal-medium as the base medium. Methodology and results: Pleurotus ostreatus was cultivated in different types of carbon sources to investigate the effects of carbon sources to mycelium growth and changes of mycelium morphology which directly affects the synthesis of EPS. In addition, additives or surfactants can increase the bioavailability of less soluble substrates in the cultured medium for the mycelium growth and indirectly affects the EPS production. In this study, the cultivation of P. ostreatus in the minimal-medium by using glucose as the carbon source with the addition of lecithin at 1% (w/v) gave the highest EPS production 4.53 ± 0.30 g/L, an increase of about 89.53% when compared to the cultivation without the addition of lecithin. Addition of lecithin changes morphology of the pellets outer layer and under microscope showing a dense hyphal network surrounding the pellets with the sizes of micro pellets almost 0.5-1.5 mm which contributed to the increase of EPS production after 14 days cultivation at 26 °C Conclusion, significance and impact of study The choice of the carbon source should not only be for high productivity rate of mycelium growth and EPS production, but a cheaper alternative source should also be considered. In conclusion, high mycelium biomass and EPS production was achieved either by changes of the morphology through the type of carbon source and addition of additives such as lecithin.

The important role of non-dental healthcare professionals (HCPs) in promoting oral health is well-accepted and has received increased attention in recent years. However, greater efforts are needed to train them in ensuring better competency in delivering this role. The aim of the present study is to assess oral health and care knowledge among HCPs by further exploring possible challenges faced by them in managing oral health problems, particularly in regard to patients in a public primary healthcare clinic. In the case of the current research, a focus group discussion was carried out with ten HCPs who are directly involved with patients from different units within the health clinics. In particular, the questions developed for the focus group discussion were divided into two parts: (1) knowledge on oral health and its link to general health, and (2) issues and challenges faced by HCPs in handling patients with oral health problems in their daily routine. The session was recorded on a digital audio tape, the responses were then transcribed, followed by the grouping of the scripts which were then qualitatively analysed. The results revealed that majority of the participants appeared to have good knowledge of general and basic oral health; however, only very few of them were aware of the relationship between oral health problems with systemic conditions. Meanwhile, one of the main challenges faced by HCPs in handling patients with oral health problems is their limited knowledge of oral health problems. Specifically, the main challenges refer to the management of medically compromised patient requiring dental treatment as well as the difficulty in changing the mindset of patients regarding oral health issues, especially in terms of seeking dental treatment. In conclusion, it has been clearly observed that HCPs involved in the present study have good knowledge of general health and oral health but limited knowledge related to oral health to systemic health. Furthermore, they tend to face numerous challenges when dealing with patients, especially due to their limited knowledge of oral health facts and drug prescription for oral problems. Therefore, there is an urgent need of additional training for both HCPs and dental teams for the purpose of enabling both parties to provide coordinated and comprehensive service to patients with oral health problems at the primary healthcare clinics.