Dental ; Sarawak

Sarawak ; Hospitals

Sarawak ; Literacy ; Health ; Food

Prevalence aspects ; Sarawak ; Community

Abortion, Induced ; Septic ; Sarawak

Background: Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a common chronic inflammatory skin disorder that significantly burdens both children and caregivers’ quality of life. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence and sociodemography of AD and determine its impact on the quality of life among AD children and their families in Sarawak. Methods: This was a cross-sectional, observational population-based epidemiological study of primary school children in Kuching. The U.K. Working Party’s Diagnostic (UKWPD) criteria was utilized to diagnose atopic dermatitis. Disease impact on quality of life was assessed via standardized questionnaires. Skin examination was performed. Results: A total of 968 children aged 7 to 12 years were recruited. The prevalence of AD was 7.0%. Malays were the commonest affected ethnic group. Most of the AD children had other associated atopies. Majority of children with AD had mild to moderate severity based on IGA with mean EASI score (standard deviation) of 1.50 (2.0). The mean Children’s Dermatology Quality Life Index (CDQLI) and Dermatitis Family Impact (DFI) were 7.26 (5.53) and 7.74 (6.12), respectively. “Symptoms of itch, sore or pain” was the most affected domain in children, whereas “Treatment impact” most affected in families. There was significant association between disease severity and children’s quality of life. Conclusion Atopic Dermatitis is common in Kuching school children. Children with AD and their families had a significant impact on quality of life, although most were mild diseases.
Dermatitis, Atopic ; Sarawak (Malaysia)

Nutritional status ; Sarawak ; Child, Preschool

Pre-pregnancy Clinic (PPC) services is one the plausible efforts towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals. However, various issues still need to be addressed for improvement of the services. Considering this view, an attempt was made to explore the barriers, strength and weakness of current practice of pre-pregnancy clinic services in Sarawak, since the programme has been implemented in this state from the year 2011. This cross-sectional study was conducted at nine selected health care facilities throughout Sarawak. A multistage sampling procedure was adapted to select the health care facilities. An unstructured open-ended questionnaire was administered to get the in-depth perceived views and current practice of pre-pregnancy clinic services. A total of 322 health care providers from nine selected health care facilities gave their feedback. In the present paper, a qualitative analysis was done for the open-ended questions to get in-depth views of barriers, strength and weakness of pre-pregnancy clinic services. The results of the study were narrated in textual form and a thematic analysis was done manually. The identified themes for perceived barriers to the provision of pre-pregnancy care were perception, attitude and acceptance of PPC services, socio-economic issues, services and client factors. The perceived weaknesses of the services are listed under two main themes: working environment and service factors, while, the strength of services produced three thematic areas which are preparation for pregnancy, prevention of mortality and morbidity and comprehensive services. Though pre-pregnancy services are beneficial for society wellbeing, various issues still need to be considered for the improvement of the quality of services. Lack of awareness, no ministerial guidelines or Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) and knowledge pertaining to the services were few of the main areas which need to be pondered upon. Promotional activities and campaigns should be geared up ensuring availability the services to the general population.
Barriers ; Perception ; Pre-pregnancy Care ; Sarawak

ABSTRACT Epidemiological and longitudinal studies have shown that pregnancy is associated with increased gingival inflammation and worsening of periodontal status. Prospective studies suggested that periodontal therapy during pregnancy might reduce the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes and significant periodontal status improvement. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the prevalence of periodontal disease amongst pregnant women, and to compare periodontal conditions before and after non-surgical periodontal therapy. This study was a cross-sectional and intervention study of pregnant women at the Mother and Child Health Clinic, Jalan P. Ramlee, Kuching, who were referred to the Periodontic Unit, Jalan Masjid Dental Clinic, Kuching for further periodontal examination and treatment. All participants were examined and diagnosed with healthy periodontium or diseased periodontium. Sixty women became the subjects and 85% were diagnosed with periodontal disease, while 15% had healthy periodontium. Plaque score (PS) and bleeding score (BS) were evaluated at baseline and at eight weeks. At baseline, all periodontal parameters (mean ± SD) were higher in the diseased periodontium group compared to the healthy group (BS, 39.6 ± 21.5 vs 6.5 ± 3.9; PS, 46.4 ± 30.1 vs 33.5 ± 31.1). After two months, both groups showed improvement in all periodontal parameters; diseased periodontium (p = 0.001) and healthy periodontium group (p = 0.016). In conclusion, 85% of the participants in this study had periodontal diseases and, the non-surgical periodontal therapy improved the participants’ periodontal status. Furthermore, there was no significant adverse pregnancy outcomes reported in this study.
Periodontal Diseases ; Pregnant Women ; Malaysia (Kuching, Sarawak)

Achieving smoking cessation is an arduous process, where smokers try different methods or approaches to achieve cessation. Quit smoking attempts play an important role in smoking cessation.Thus, this study was conducted to determine the factors associated with attempt-to-quit smoking among the currentsmokers in Sarawak.This cross-sectional study was conducted among adult smokers in Sarikei, Sarawak by face-to-face interview using an adapted and validated questionnaire. Non-probability sampling method was used to select the study place. An adult smoker was selected systematically from each selected household. A total of 482 smoker households were identified with a response rate of 92.3%. Data was analysed using IBM SPSS Version 22.0. A p-value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant. The mean (SD) age of the smokers was 36.3(13.3) years. However, the mean (SD) age of smoking initiation was 18.5(4.8) years. Majority of the smokers were male (91.5%), with the male to female ratio being 1:0.1. Mean (SD) score on The Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence was 4.75(2.4), while motivation to quit smoking score was 3.04(1.0). Majority of the smokers (83.1%) hadever seen pictorial health warnings on cigarette packs. More than half of the smokers (54.8%) had ever tried to quit smoking. Binary logistic regression analysis revealed that marital status, religion, ethnicity, pictorial health warnings on cigarette packs and motivation to quit smoking appeared to be the significant predictors of attempt-to-quit smoking (p<0.05). Understanding the attempts to quit smoking will assist inclinical expectations. Thus, a smoking cessation programme should be designed in line with these factors, to aid quit smoking attempts.
Smoking ; Attempt-to-quit ; Addiction ; Motivation ; Pictorial Health Warning ; Sarawak