Introduction:Diarrhoea remains the second most serious health problem among children below five years old in Solomon Islands and is one of the leading causes of infant mortality,which caused about one in every ten children dying before the age of five years.Globally,around 6 million children (＜5 years) suffer from diarrhoea each year.Because of lack of previous studies,this study aims to assess the predictors of knowledge and practice of caregivers towards diarrhoea among under-five children in Mataniko informal settlements in Honiara,Solomon Islands,2016.Methods:This quantitative study was conducted at three randomly selected settlements in Honiara,Solomon Islands from June to July 2016.This study was conducted among both male and female caregivers who had children under five years of age,were aged 18 and over,live in Solomon Islands and were willing to participate in the study.A validated structured questionnaire was used to collect the data based on a 2-week recall of diarrhoea episodes.To avoid double-counting,each surveyed household was geo-referenced using global positioning system (GPS).The collected data were entered and analysed using SPSS (version 23.0) and descriptive and analytical statistics.P＜0.05 was considered as statistically significant.This study was approved by relevant ethical committees.Results:A total of 205 caregivers with at least one child under-five years participated in the study.The mean ages of caregivers and the under-five children were (30.7+8.2) years and (2.6+1.5) years,respectively.Among 205 caregivers,94 of them had reported that their children (＜5 years) had suffered with at least one episode of diarrhoea within the last 2 weeks prior to the survey.This gave a prevalence rate of 45.9％.The caregiver's knowledge about the causes (99.0％) and prevention (98.0％) of under-five diarrhoea was extremely high.Nevertheless,less than half had regularly practiced essential hygiene habits.The factors which appeared to be significantly associated with under-five diarrhoea were irregular hand washing (odds ratio [OR] 2.07,95％ confidence interval [CI]:1.12-3.81,P=0.020),inappropriate methods of disposing of children's fecal waste (OR 1.88,95％ CIL 1.06-3.33,P=0.030),and using the river for bathing (OR 1.83,95％ CI:1.04-3.23,P=0.036),and laundry (OR 2.17,95％ CI:1.23-3.84,P=0.008).Conclusion:Diarrhoea is a major public health problem among children below five years in Mataniko informal settlements.To address these exposures,relevant programs and projects should be designed,especially in areas like family planning,household economic allocation and political commitment.Awareness and advocacy programs on birth spacing,food hygiene and potential health risks about the river should be ongoing at the community level.

Objective:This study aimed to explore more on contributing factors and prevention of overweight and obesity among Pacific islanders.Methods:Using Cochrane library guideline,four electronic databases,PubMed,Embase,Scopus and CINAHL,were systematically searched from 2010 to 2020.Search strategy included key concepts,free text terms,and database-controlled vocabulary terms to identify articles on determinants and preventative strategies of over-weight and obesity in the Pacific countries.A data extraction sheet was developed to extract relevant information required for analysis and theme development for this study.Results:A total of 22 articles were summarized and categorized.Determinants of overweight and obesity iden-tified two themes:environmental related factors 13.6％(3/22)and sociocultural related factors 27.3％(6/22).The preventative strategies of overweight and obesity was categorized into behavioural change 22.7％(5/22),school-related 18.2％(4/22),and policies 50％(11/22).The quality assessment of articles showed"Good"68.2％(15/22),and"Fair"31.8％(7/22).Conclusion:This study highlighted two contributing,non-medication factors affecting overweight and obesity are both environmental and socio-cultural issues.Overweight and obesity preventative strategies identified in the Pacific context considered behavioural change,knowledge enhancement,and policy development.Further research should aim at exploring the current preventative strategies in-depth,to appreciate the most feasible and recommended preventative approach within the Pacific society.

Introduction and Aim: Early exposure to clinical skills teaching (CST) helps medical students to apply their knowledge in basic sciences in a real situation. One of the big challenges that always needs to be considered is their ability to examine a patient appropriately and pick up physical signs, as well as the analysis and interpretation of the physical signs. Due to the lack of existing research in this area, this study is aimed at understanding medical students’ perceptions towards delivered CST courses at the College of Medicine, Nursing, and Health Sciences (CMNHS), Fiji National University (FNU). Methodology: This descriptive cross sectional study was conducted among the Bachelor of Medicine/Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) degree students in year 4 and 5 who have done internal medicine rotations in 2014 and also to the year 6 students who were doing their clinical attachments at Lautoka hospital in 2014. A self-administrated questionnaire was used to collect the data. Five-point Likert scaled questions were used to measure the medical students’ attitudes and perceptions towards delivered CST sessions. An information sheet and written consent form were used before the collection of the data. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistical tests. Results: Eighty one students participated in this study; the majority of them were aged 23-24 years (48.2%). More than sixty one percent were females and over thirty-eight percent were males. Forty percent of the participants were MBBS year 4. The majority of the participants believed that the CST was well organized (72.9%) and was clear (79%). The majority of participants (92.6%) believed that the clinical content was relevant and 85.24% of the participants believed that they were able to apply what they learned from the clinical skills sessions during the clinical years. Overall, 75.4% of the respondents believed that the clinical skills teaching sessions were effective while 3.6% disagreed. Conclusion The results of this study showed high positive perceptions of medical students towards the organization, clarity, the relevance of the content, and the effectiveness of CST sessions. This study will help the School of Medical Sciences to examine other methods of CST to promote students’ clinical skills.

Introduction: Family planning (FP) is a method to prevent unwanted pregnancies among couples. More than 200 million women in the developing nation do not want pregnancy but do not practically use modern methods of FP. Women’s knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) play a crucial role in using FP’s is a form of practice. This study explored the determinants of KAP towards FP among women in Raub, Pahang, Malaysia. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 249 women with a convenience sampling method. Data was collected using a pilot-tested self-administered questionnaire. Results: Age, ethnicity, religion, marital status, employment status, annual income, education level, and the number of children were significantly correlated (p = 0.001 – 0.019) with the KAP of FP. Conclusion: The study demonstrated a need for health education campaigns and utilise every interaction of women with healthcare providers to disseminate information on FP and dispel misconceptions. Interventional studies are recommended for further exploration.

Objective: A study was conducted to determine the seroprevalence of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection among children and their mothers on Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands two decades after routine vaccination was introduced in the 1990s. Mothers’ knowledge and attitudes towards HBV disease and vaccination were also assessed. Methods: Results of a national seroprevalence survey conducted in 2016–2017 and antenatal records were used to determine the prevalence of HBV seropositivity in children aged 6–8 years and their biological mothers. The associations between demographic, social and vaccination-related factors and seropositivity were explored using Fisher’s exact tests. Results: HBV seroprevalence was 0.3% in children and 6.8% in their mothers (during pregnancy). Coverage of timely HBV vaccination was 90.3% for the birth dose and was significantly associated with factors related to place of residence (P < 0.001), place of birth (P < 0.001) and number of antenatal visits (P < 0.001). Maternal attitudes towards infant vaccination and antenatal screening were largely positive (95.8% and 96.7%, respectively) despite low vaccination rates (20.9%) among mothers. Knowledge levels were low for disease complications, treatment and transmission. Discussion: Prevalence of HBV in children and mothers residing on Kwajalein Atoll in 2016–2017 was lower than the national average for the Marshall Islands. Timely birth dose administration appears to have been effective in preventing mother-to-child transmission of HBV in this setting and should be promoted in remote settings where antiviral therapy is not available. Provision of out-of-cold-chain HBV vaccines should be considered to improve access in remote settings.