A qualitative tracer study of USIM medical graduates’ performance in the workplace was conducted by performing face-to-face and focus group interviews to evaluate the effectiveness of the current curriculum. This paper discusses the challenges during the data collection stage and the needs to improve data collection strategies in response to the implementation of the Movement Control Order (MCO) by the Malaysian Government. It will also analyse the benefits and limitations when adjusting the data collection strategies. In the beginning, data collection was administered via faceto- face (individual) and focus group interviews. When the MCO was enforced, the interviews were shifted to online methodology. This online adaptation provided the convenience of scheduling interviews and also comfort to the graduates to participate in their homes that normally had better internet access than in the hospitals. The risk of exposure to COVID-19 through face-to-face interactions was therefore reduced. Although the usage of Microsoft Teams was conducive to online recording, some graduates were not able to access the application during their scheduled interviews. As such, Google Meet was employed instead, and the interviews were recorded by using a voice recorder. Besides, the saving in travelling costs for data collection was significant as the extra budget could be allocated for other research expenditure. In this study, Microsoft Teams licence was provided by the university and Google Meet was free of charge. Hence, the COVID-19 pandemic has presented an opportunity for the adoption of an online data collection method that was not reckoned with at the beginning of this study. Online data collection can therefore be considered for both qualitative and quantitative studies in the future.

There is a growing interest on research related to health-seeking behaviours. However, there are minimal studies in Malaysia which focus on this issue. This paper aimed to determine the health-seeking behaviours among the Malay population and its association based on the localities of the urban and rural population. To achieve this purpose, a cross-sectional survey was conducted using face-to-face interview method. A total of 480 respondents participated in this survey with the majority (57.7%) of them were from a rural area. Among all the subjects, 4.9% and 5.4% of urban and rural participants respectively, did not seek treatment when they were sick. The reasons being are they chose to ignore the pain (80%), time-consumption (8%), and they do not believe in modern treatments (8%). A higher number of rural participants chose public healthcare facilities compared to urban (82.3% vs 72.6%, p<0.001), whereas a higher number of urban participants chose private healthcare facilities in contrast to rural participants (25.3% vs 16.4%, p<0.001). For participants with chronic diseases, 5.3% did not go for followup, 91.2% rely on healthcare staffs for information on the diseases, and 18.9% took traditional or supplementary medicine. Majority of the participants are in agreement that the accessibility to public healthcare facilities in terms of distance, transportation and operational time, as well as the services to get treatments, were good. Overall, majority of the respondents prefer to seek treatments from public healthcare facilities followed by private facilities and pharmacies. However, there is a small number of participants who did not seek for treatments, including those with chronic diseases. Further studies shall be conducted to explore the barriers to seeking treatments in this population.

Recent advances in information technology has made e-learning feasible in many fields of education. Medical education is not any different. This survey is conducted among all the medical educators in Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM) assessing their readiness and attitudes towards e-learning. A cross-sectional questionnaires assessing the IT skills, Internet usage, attitude, perceived benefits and usage of e-learning among USIM medical lecturers were used. Data gained were then analyzed. The response rate was 92%. Female (56) made majority of the respondents. 44 of the educators aged 25-34 with 56% had teaching experience of <5 years. Majority of the respondents rate their skills as intermediate in using the software. 56% uses the Internet for more than 3 h per day. Majority agreed that e-learning benefits the students in many ways. Majority also willing to learn and integrate e-learning in their teaching modalities. Despite this, many have not used e-learning in delivering lectures and accepting assignments at time of the survey. Nevertheless, while majority of medical educators are willing to incorporate e-learning in their teaching, many still have not used it. Improvement of infrastructure, training and support to all medical educators are required for successful implementation of e-learning.

Osteoporosis is considered a silent disease, the early symptoms of which often go unrecognised. Osteoporosis causes bone loss, reduces mineralised density, and inevitably leads to bone fracture. Hormonal deficiencies due to aging or drug induction are also frequently attributed to osteoporosis. Nevertheless, the phytochemical content of natural plants has been proven to significantly reduce osteoporotic conditions. A systematic review was conducted by this study to identify research specifically on the effects of Malaysian herbs such as Piper sarmentosum, Eurycoma longifolia and Labisia pumila on osteoporotic bone changes. This review consisted of a comprehensive search of five databases for the effects of specific herbs on osteoporotic bone change. These databases were Web of Science (WOS), Medline, Scopus, ScienceDirect and PubMed. The articles were selected throughout the years, were limited to the English language and fully documented. Duplication, irrelevant titles, different herbs and in vitro studies were excluded, including those that are not original research papers. A total of 399 potential studies were identified, but only 21 samples were accepted based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Six of the twenty one studies were on Piper sarmentosum, six on Eurycoma longifolia, and the remaining nine studies were on Labisia pumila. Overall, in three of the studies a glucocorticoid induced model was used, while in 12 of the studies an ovariectomised model was used, and for the other six studies an orchidectomised model was used as the osteoporotic model. All of the studies reported varied results based on the type of herbs used, but in comparison to Eurycoma longifolia, Piper sarmentosum and Labisia pumila recorded better anti-osteoporotic effects, while the majority of studies on Eurycoma longifolia were unable to preserve bone strength.

Objective: To determine the percentage of emergency caesarean section among patient who came earlier than their elective date and its outcome. Methods: This is a retrospective study. Using the elective caesarean section list, all women who planned to have elective caesarean sections in Hospital Ampang from January the first till 31st December 2015 were in included. Exclusion criteria includes women with comorbid such as hypertensive disease in pregnancy, diabetes in pregnancy, multiple pregnancy, known congenital abnormality and intrauterine growth restrictions. Results: A total of 416 elective caesarean section were schedule in 2015. From this 312/416 (75%) were included in this study. 60/312 (19.2%) came in labour prior to their elective caesarean section date. Among those who came earlier 29/60 (48.3%) presented in labour before 38 week period of amenorrhoea and 31/60 (51.7%) presented between 38 to 39 week. Breech in labour made 60% (36/60) of the main indication for caesarean section followed by 25% (15/60) repeat caesarean section and 15% (9/60) has 2 previous scars. 17/60 (28.3%) had blood loss of >500mls however there were no major postpartum haemorrhage reported. There was no other complications such as extended tear or bladder injury. There were five neonatal admission 5/60 (8.3%) compared to 20/252 (7.9%) among those who had elective caesarean section. The difference were not significant with (p= 0.7944) using a chi-squared test. All the neonates had Apgar score of 7 and above at 1 minute of life. Discussions & Conclusion: There were no significant morbidity to the mother and NICU admission between those who had emergency versus those who had elective caesarean. Almost 20% patients presented earlier than their elective date putting the stress on the oncall team. A larger prospective study is warranted to find the ideal time for elective caesarean section without risking the mother and her neonate.

Studies assessing the level of knowledge, attitude, and practice on non-communicable diseases (NCDs) among the general population are still insufficient in literature. This study aimed to assess the baseline levels of knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) of the adult population in Malaysian urban area towards NCDs. A thoroughly designed and validated KAP questionnaire was administered, and the responses were coded and analysed. The survey involved 207 respondents from the urban area of Ampangan, Negeri Sembilan with an average age of respondents is 53.52 ± 17.86 years. Seventy-six (36.7%) were male and 131 (63.3%) were female. Majority of the respondents had good knowledge (81.2%) and attitude (53.1%) towards NCDs. However, only 8.7% of the respondents possess good practice while the majority had moderate (56.5%) practice score towards NCDs. Older age category of more than 40 years old had better knowledge scores compared to those below 40 years [median=25 (IqR=4) vs 23 (5), p=0.001]. Female respondents had higher attitude [25(7) vs 56 (6), p=0.025] and practice [5(2) vs 5(3), p=0.007] scores compared to male. Respondents with hypertension [25(4) vs 24(5), p=0.002] and diabetes mellitus [25(4) vs 24(4), p=0.014] had higher knowledge scores compared to non-disease respondents. The findings of this study depicted that respondents in the studied urban area had good knowledge and attitude towards NCDs. However, the practice was moderate. To overcome this problem, repeated reinforcement with health education will bring about a positive change in urban general population knowledge towards NCDs, especially in younger and non-disease population. 2018 Pharmascope Publications. All rights reserved.

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) represent the foremost cause of mortality worldwide, including Malaysia. In this study, we aim to gauge the level of knowledge, attitudes, and practices on NCDs using a validated questionnaire. A descriptive cross-sectional study conducted among the general adult population in selected areas of Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia conducted from October 2017 to February 2018. Of the 486 respondents, 57.4% (279) were from rural communities. The mean age of the respondents was 53.68 (SD:19.69). For both urban and rural respondents, more than half of the respondents showed good knowledge (78.7% vs 69.9%), good attitude (53.1% vs 93.2%), and moderate practice (63.8% vs 54.8%). In bivariate analysis, rural respondents have a significantly higher total attitude [66.01 (SD = 5.049) vs 57.18 (SD = 4.825), p < 0.001] and practice [7.65 (SD = 1.891) vs 7.24 (SD = 1.624), p = 0.013] scores than urban respondents with no significant difference in total knowledge scores. However, rural respondents had lower scores regarding general knowledge on NCDs [5.71 (SD = 2.288) vs 6.35 (SD = 1.587), p = 0.001] and diabetes mellitus diseases [2.91 (1.134) vs 3.24 (0.954), p = 0.001] compared to urban communities. This study identified that even with adequate knowledge, the attitude and practices towards NCDs were unsatisfactory, particularly among urban respondents. Considering the future burden of NCDs management and complication, efforts are needed to assess the factors that decrease the attitude and lifestyle practices in the prevention of NCDs, particularly among the urban community.

Estrogen replacement therapy (ERT) is known to be effective as an anti-osteoporotic treatment for postmenopausal women but exerted many adverse effects. Ficus carica (FC) or fig is a fruit rich in antioxidants and anti-inflammatory sources that are believed to contribute to its potential as ERT alternative. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of FC supplementation on the trabecular microarchitecture of postmenopausal osteoporotic rat models. Fifty-six adult female Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into groups of Sham-operated (Sham), ovariectomized control (OVX), ovariectomized with 64.5 ?g/kg estrogen Premarin (ERT), ovariectomized with 50 mg/kg aqueous extract of FC (FC50), ovariectomized with 100 mg/kg aqueous extract of FC (FC100), ovariectomized with 50 mg/kg raw extract of FC (RAW50) and ovariectomized with 100 mg/kg raw extract of FC (RAW100). The treatments were given daily via oral gavage for eight weeks. After the treatment, rats were euthanized and femora were dissected out for micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) analysis. Trabecular structure of OVX femur showed significant osteoporotic deterioration in bone volume, trabecular separation, structural model index and connectivity density. ERT significantly reversed the osteoporotic-induced bone changes comparable to Sham level. RAW50 showed the best FC treatment in preserving bone microarchitecture. In conclusion, raw extraction of FC has high potential as an alternative against osteoporosis due to its high mineral contents and bioactive compounds.

In Malaysia, the increasing demands on prophetic diet are shown through huge numbers of prophetic food products manufactured by Malay Muslim’s companies such as Hiraq Marketing, Saffron Integrated Marketing, Qaseh Gold, Naturalherbs and many more. The mushrooming of prophetic food products has shown an increased awareness among Muslim community in Malaysia in practicing Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad S.A.W. Despite the increasing demands of prophetic diet, there are few studies done in Malaysia to determine the actual practice among Muslim Malaysian communities. This preliminary study, which consisted of 40 adult residents in Kg. Dato’ Ahmad Razali , Sepang found that 35% of the respondents consumed dates only during Ramadhan or fasting month and this result showed that the level of practice of dates consumption was still low. Therefore, further large scale study needs to be done to promote the consumption of this prophetic food, not only among Muslims but non-Muslims as well. The acceptance of prophetic foods may lead to a healthier eating practice, thus improving one’s health status. Index Terms—Prophetic foods, religiosity, culture, healthy eating.

Waqf or religious endowment is of a benevolence instrument emerged to help reduce the burden of the disadvantaged people. As the cost for medical expenses are exorbitant, the availability of waqf should contribute to the improvement of the community health. The establishment of Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM) Specialist healthcare clinic was founded by the idea of waqf through healthcare for the less fortunate. With collaboration from many agencies the establishment of the clinic has served community in need to access better health care. The primary aim of waqf clinic establishment is to continually uphold the Islamic aspects in its establishment and management for betterment of health among disadvantaged people.