In the Malaysia Economic Transformation Programmed (ETP) launched on 2010, palm oil industry has been highlighted as one of the key sector towards national economic development. There are a lot of concerns directed towards safety and health in the agricultural sectors where oil palm plantations are the main agricultural sectors in Malaysia. Correspondingly, several tasks by the small holders in the oil palm plantation have been shown to lead to musculoskeletal disorders which are attributed to various safety and health issues. This study intends to determine the effects of ergonomics interventions approach, highly promoted by International Labor Organization to resolve ergonomics issues specifically among oil palm plantation small holders and to improve Occupational Safety and Health aspects of the workplace. The study will be divided into two phases, the first phase of the cross-sectional design which will involve 360 male respondents working as small holders in the oil palm plantation. Questionnaires will be used to collect information on socio demographic data, occupational history, social lifestyle and prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) data. The second phase of the intervention study (Quasi Experimental) involve intervention program based on Participatory Action Oriented Training (PAOT) approach using qualitative observation and quantitative results of analysis during the first phase. A training program consisting of 3 primary instruments (lecture, action checklist and video), reinforcing activities (to increase knowledge, enhance understanding and associate practical application) and indicators (questionnaires and qualitative observation) were created, modified and customized to the small holders’ working in oil palm plantation. Palm oil industry provides job opportunity for more than half a million people and living opportunity for more than 1 million people (MPOB, 2011). Improving safety & health for the small holders in the oil palm plantations become the overall outcome of the ergonomics intervention. Specifically, the ergonomics Intervention will be expected to increase Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) among the small holders, to be used as a program for occupational safety & health improvement in oil palm plantations around Melaka as well as to reduce risk of developing Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs) due to small holder’s multi task in the oil palm plantations. As the current knowledge gap of agricultural workers such as small holders remains wide in terms of safety and health, awareness among the small holders in the rural areas is low. In addition, focus of research was generally low on agricultural workers especially of health components further increasing the knowledge gap and status of health of agricultural workers or specifically small holders in Malaysia.

Three urban public primary schools in the district of Petaling, Selangor were surveyed for obesity amongst the schoolchildren and factors related to it. The prevalence of obesity amongst primary schoolchildren, with the mean age of 8.91 years was 9.5%. In addition, it was more prevalent among the boys (p<0.05) as compared to the girls. However, there was no difference with regards to ethnicity, being breastfed, physical activity, time spent watching television or fast food intake in relation to obesity among these primary schoolchildren. A larger community study is required to determine if other specific factors and dietary energy intake are associated with obesity amongst primary schoolchildren, especially in rural or less urbanised regions.

Chronic non-communicable diseases are the new emerging epidemic, and they are thought to challenge only rich countries; cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, and other non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are now the leading cause of death and disability in low-income and middle-income countries, where they killed almost 8 million people younger than 60 years in 2013. Therefore, there is a need to develop a valid and reliable tool to measure the beliefs that influence people’s general behaviour, and a used to measure beliefs about chronic disease perceived susceptibility. The purpose of this study was to develop and validate the use of perception questionnaire among the young Iraqi adults. A total of 200 young adults participated who are free from any chronic diseases under study, and are living in Baghdad. The questionnaire, validated by an expert’s panel, translated to Arabic language, and pretested. Analyses included descriptive statistics of all the study variables, reliability estimates, and construct validity using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Results showed that mean age of respondents was 30 years old, majority were males 71.5%, and EFA showed that factor loading was more than 0.4. CFA results show that Chi-square (df) = 1.213(2); p value (>0.05) = 0.297. Internal consistency reliability analysis on health-related behaviour; special practice, information seeking and perceived probability of diseases have good Cronbach’s α value of between 0.8 - 0.9. These findings revealed that validation is favourable and can be utilized on larger scale of sample to proceed with main study on chronic disease perceived susceptibility among healthy people.
perception ; validity ; chronic disease

A cross sectional study was conducted to determine the exposure of heat and its effect to physiological changes among male workers in an automotive manufacturing plant in Shah Alam, Selangor. Forty six workers from the foundry operation division in the factory were selected as respondents. Variables measured were the environmental temperature (WBGTin), metabolic workload, body core temperature, and blood pressure, heart rate as well as heart rate recovery. Results showed that the mean of environmental temperature (WBGTin) was 28.960C. These production workers were exposed occasionally to heat during melting process, loading silica and powder into the molds as well as when making core products into the mold. The average time of monitoring was 2 hours for intermittent exposure and 8 hours duration for overall exposure. Bonferonni Test showed significant differences of body core temperature between before the shift starts and 2 hours after the shift started (p = 0.05) and after 8 hours ( p < 0.001) respectively. A weak correlations were found between body core temperature with heart rate before the shift starts (r = 0.293, p = 0.048), and with systolic blood pressure after 8 hours (r = 0.309, p =0.036) respectively. The average heart rate was in range 51 to 98 beat per minute, indicating that there is no excessive physiological demand. The mean of body core temperature (36.37 ± 0.53 0C) and heart rate (74.50 ± 10.10 beap perminute) after 8 hours indicated a good body control of heat exposure. Three out of four work stations monitored had temperatures greater than 28 0C (ACGIH TLV). The workers were exposed to moderate heat stress during the study period; however, body core temperature, heart rate and blood pressure did not reach unacceptable level of physiological strain.

The objectives of this study are to investigate diagnostic value of two different tests amongst tests highly recommended and used for diagnosis of HAVS of the sensorineural component; Semmes Weinstein Monofilament (SWM) and Purdue Pegboard (PP) tests using vibrotactile perception threshold (VPT) test as standard objective quantitative test. For the method, a total of 176 grinders as vibration exposed respondent of a shipyard’s fabrication participated in this study. Questionnaire and vibration exposures data were collected for all respondents where 67 respondents further performed the three quantitative sensorineural testing. The result showed that mean acceleration magnitude of grinding tools used were 4.9 ms-2, exceeding recommendation by European Commission. Both cut-off point methods of mean plus two times standard deviation (mean + 2sd) and z-score (at 75th percentile) show significant difference among healthy and HAVS (p < 0.001). Correlation between SWM with VPT and PP with VPT was weak. However, results suggests progressive pathological damage to sensorineural component of the digits starts with fast-adapting II (FA II) mechanoreceptors indicated with significant correlation primarily at 125 Hz. Analyses of sensitivity and specificity found that monofilament at 0.16g force best discriminate HAVS from healthy. In the other hand, Purdue Pegboard test shows best diagnostic value of indicating HAVS at minimum insert of 16 pin and 14 pin respectively for dominant and non-dominant hand. Both Semmes Weinstein Monofilament and Purdue Pegboard tests has limited diagnostic value to be used as screening tools for early detection of HAVS.

Acute appendicitis is one of the most common differential diagnoses for acute abdominal pain made by emergency doctors. Suspected cases require surgical referral for observation or definitive intervention to prevent complications. A high index of suspicion and good clinical skills with the aid of scoring systems allows early decision making, which includes optimal pain control. The objective of this study was to identify the pain score and is relationship to the cut-off points of the Alvarado scoring system so that justifies early surgical referral or discharge for suspected acute appendicitis from the Emergency Department of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre (UKMMC). This was a cross sectional study of acute abdominal pain from June 2007 to September 2008. All patients who fulfilled the criteria and consented to the study were assessed for Alvarado score, verbal numerical pain score (VNRS) and their subsequent management. Patients with an Alvarado score of ≥7 were likely to have acute appendicitis (80.1% sensitivity and 52.63% specificity) and those with the score of ≤3 were unlikely to have acute appendicitis. The median pain score was 7.00 (IQR: 5.00-8.50) but 72.5% did not receive any analgesia. There was no direct relationship between the pain score with Alvarado score. Oligoanalgesia in patients with acute appendicitis still exist in Emergency Department of UKMMC.

Introduction: Elderly is a vulnerable population that is prone to sarcopenia which is associated with the loss of muscle mass, strength and function which are some of the diseases that affect the elderly. The association between environmental factors with sarcopenia should be explored as it has the potential to influence the health and disability of a person. At present, limited research is conducted to investigate the association that could be attributed to the complex interaction between human and environmental interactions. Hence this review is conducted to identify the environmental factors associated with sarcopenia. Methods: A systematic review was conducted using PubMed, SCOPUS, Web of Science and manual search following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) criteria. We used articles that had been written in English and relevant articles were then screened, duplicates were removed, eligibility criteria were applied, and studies that met the criteria were reviewed. The keywords environmental factors, pollutants food environment, neighbourhood environment, locality and sarcopenia were included. Results: Initial search generated 934 publications and 12 articles were included after the inclusion and exclusion criteria for this review. In this review, environmental factors associated with sarcopenia are divided into 3 themes that comprises of food environment (availability and physical access, economic access and food quality and safety), neighbourhood environment and pollutants. Conclusion This systematic review revealed an association between the food environment, neighbourhood environment and pollutants with sarcopenia. The findings are salient as they could aid policymakers in formulating the necessary strategy to reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with sarcopenia, especially with the increase in the ageing population globally.

Many of our chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients venture into complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) to seek a cure for the disease beyond conventional management. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence and pattern of CAM usage; and its association with the progression of CKD in our population. This was a cross-sectional survey recruited CKD patients from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre (UKMMC). Data was collected via interview using questionnaires which explore the demographics, type and pattern of CAM use. Patients’ comorbidities and serum creatinine were extracted from the medical notes to assess the association between progression of CKD and usage of CAM. Chi-square, Independent Samples t-test, Mann-Whitney U test and logistic regression were used to evaluate for an association. Three hundred and seventy two eligible patients were recruited. The prevalence of CAM use was 29% in the past year. Younger age, higher education and higher income level were associated with significantly more usage of CAM. Natural products were the commonest type of CAM used (86.1%). The belief in the effectiveness of CAM was the main reason for its uptake and about 57.8% revealed their practice to their physician. We found that the use of CAM in Malaysian CKD patients did not influence the progression of the disease.

Violence among adolescents is a significant public health issue. The focus was on school-going adolescents because of the life-long negative impact at an individual level both for the perpetrator and victim. Besides, it increases the costs to provide health, welfare, and criminal justice as well as decreases general productivity at the community level. The study aims to determine the prevalence of violence-related behavior, characteristics of both victims and perpetrators, in addition to inter and intrapersonal factors associated with violence-related behaviors. A study was carried out in 2013, which involved all upper secondary school students (aged 16 to 17 years). It was a part of the Malaysian Adolescent Health Risk Behavior (MyAHRB) study, which was conducted in 11 states in Peninsular Malaysia. Standardized, validated questionnaires were used for data collection. The prevalence of violence-related behaviors was 22.4%, and this was higher among male students as compared to females (29.1% vs. 16.3%). Multivariable analysis revealed that the odds of violence-related behaviour increased among males, Malay race, drug use, smoking, had exposure to sex, which sometimes and always felt lonely and had attempted suicide. Agreeable to ensure that their lifestyles do not transgress religious limit and belief was significantly protective. This study provides evidence for a targeted approach to combat violence-related behaviors among adolescents.

Bone marrow harvested by aspiration contains connective tissue progenitor cells which can be selectively isolated and induced to express bone phenotype in vitro. The osteoblastic progenitor can be estimated by counting the number of cells attach using the haemacytometer. This study was undertaken to test the hypothesis that human aging is associated with a significant change on the number of osteoblastic progenitors in the bone marrow. Bone marrow aspirates were harvested from 38 patients, 14 men (age 11-70) and 24 women (age 10-70) and cultured in F12: DMEM (1:1). In total 15 bone marrow samples have been isolated from patients above 40 years old (men/women) of age. Fourteen (93.3%) of this samples failed to proliferate. Only one (6.7%) bone marrow sample from a male patient, aged 59 years old was successfully cultured. Seventy percent (16/23) of the samples from patient below than 40 years old were successfully cultured. However, our observation on the survival rate for cells of different gender from patient below 40 years old does not indicate any significant difference. From this study, we conclude that the growth of bone marrow stromal cells possibly for bone engineering is better from bone marrow aspirates of younger patient.
Age Factors ; Bone Marrow Cells/*cytology ; Cell Aging/*physiology ; Cell Division/*physiology ; Cell Survival/physiology ; Mesenchymal Stem Cells/*cytology ; Osteoblasts/*cytology ; Sex Factors ; Stromal Cells/cytology ; *Tissue Engineering