Hypertension has been recognised as an important public health issue, affecting paediatric population. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of hypertension and its relationship with obesity among different ethnic, gender primary school children in Kuching division, Sarawak. It was a cross-sectional study using multistage sampling. Data was collected using anthropometric equipment and digital blood pressure monitor. Data was analysed using SPSS version 20. A total of 1314 respondents participated. 36.9% of the respondents were overweight and obese, 31% were overfat and obese, 29% had abnormal waist circumference and 32.8% had abnormal waist-height ratio (WHtR). About 22.1% of the respondents were found to be in pre-hypertension and hypertension stage. There were significant differences in overweight and obese, overfat and obese, WHtR between males and females. Indigenous Sarawak reported to have the highest number of hypertensive at risk, overweight and obese, overfat and obese, abnormal waist circumference and WHtR. Those respondents who were hypertensive were found to be overweight and obese, overfat and obese, with abnormal waist circumference and WHtR. Screening of potential risk factors at a young age would help to reduce the incidents of chronic disease in the adulthood. Blood pressure measurement should be included in the routine physical examination, to identify high risk children for further investigation.

Menthol brand cigarette has been found to be linked with early initiation of smoking and addiction of nicotine. This study was designed to find out the factors associated with smoking menthol brand cigarettes among adult population in Sarawak. This was a cross-sectional study conducted among the adult population in Sarawak. Data were collected from ten villages in Kota Samarahan and Kuching Division by face to face interview using modified Global Adult Tobacco Survey questionnaire. Non-probability purposive sampling method was adopted to select the villages. All the households of the villages were visited, and an adult member was selected randomly from each household irrespective of sex. After missing value imputation, 1000 data sets were analysed using statistical software SPSS 19.0 version. Analysis showed that 28.8% of the respondents were current smokers, and 7.8% were past smokers. Among the smokers, 56.3% were habituated with menthol brand cigarette. Logistic regression analysis revealed that age at initiation of smoking before 15 years of age (OR=11. 68, 95% CI: 4.25, 32.10), smoking within five minutes of wake up from sleep (OR=3. 20, 95% CI: 1.35, 7.54), nature of job as business (OR=4. 81, 95% CI: 2.13, 10.86) and service holders (OR= 3.85, 95% CI: 2.07, 7.16) and family size 5 and above (OR=2. 22, 95% CI: 1.25, 3.94) appeared to be important determinants of smoking any menthol brand cigarette (p<0.05). Menthol is a prominent design feature to attract and retain younger smokers. It does not necessarily make the transition from experimenting with cigarettes, but to encourage early smokers to become a confirmed smoker. So, anti-tobacco public health programme should focus on age-specific community approach.
Smoking ; Tobacco Products ; Adult

Caring for stroke survivors is inevitably a burden to caregivers. It is not uncommon for stroke survivors who are discharged from the hospital and found themselves at home without any help and care from the supposed caregivers. However, in instances where there are available and willing caregivers, a sudden and unpredictable task of caring for stroke survivors require the stroke caregivers to apply their coping strategies due to the demanding nature of looking after a survivor. This study aimed to determine coping strategies undertaken by stroke caregivers in caring for stroke survivors. This was an exploratory qualitative study and data was collected from the caregivers of stroke survivor using a semi-structured guided questionnaire. A total of 18 caregivers were included in the study. The data were collected from November 2015 until June 2016 at a selected community rehabilitation centre in Kuching, Sarawak. The qualitative data analysis revealed that the coping strategies undertaken by stroke caregivers include change of role in life, self-motivation, sharing with other people, crying, trying to forget things that happen, hoping survivors will get better, emotion suppression and self-blame. The study highlighted the experiences by the caregivers for caring for stroke patients and focused on the coping strategies undertaken by the caregivers. Better ununderstanding of these experiences does help the service providers to provide better support and resources for caregivers in caring for stroke survivors.

This article aimed to review the design features of web-based or online FFQ developed for adults and statistical analysis used in the validation, comparison, or reproducibility studies. The search identified 863 articles, and 29 studies met the criteria. The number of food list ranges from 12 to 279 items. The food portion size was estimated using images or a standard portion size using household measurement. Web-based FFQ was validated with other dietary assessment tools, Block FFQ and biomarker. Comparison study of web-based FFQ was done using paper-based FFQ and interviewed-administered FFQ. Two studies conducted validation and comparison study using other dietary assessment methods, biomarker and paper-based FFQ. Seven studies conducted reproducibility studies. Overall, webbased FFQs showed acceptable validity with the respective reference method and good reproducibility. Strategies to improve the application of current evidence on best practices in designing and validating a web-based FFQ can improve nutritional epidemiology studies.