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Aedes aegypti exhibit a higher preference for ovipositing their eggs in water that possess with dissolved mineral and nutrient for the survival of their progeny. These solutions usually contain ammonia which was formed due to decomposing process of decaying organic matter in the water. Therefore, the understanding of oviposition preferences is crucial for developing effective strategies in vector control programme. The attractiveness of aqueous ammonia, ammonium nitrate and a mixture of ammonium and acid lactic to gravid Ae. aegypti were accessed through dual and multiple choice bioassays under laboratory conditions. In dual and multiple choice bioassays, female mosquitoes was highly tend to oviposit their eggs in the mixture of ammonium and acid lactic solution (152.87±11.06) compared to the ammonium nitrate (134.13±10.32)) and ammonium aqueos (141.60±11.93). Solution of ammonium nitrate was less effective to attract gravid Aedes in dual bioassays’ studies (P>0.05). This finding indicates that the combination of ammonium and acid lactic could be used in ovitrap surveillance programme. However, further research on combination of ammonium and acid lactic is warranted to find a better oviposition attractant for Ae. aegypti

The consequences of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) in adolescents go beyond infertility during reproductive age. Therefore, research on PCOS should be methodically designed to address gaps and enhance the diagnosis and clinical management of the condition. This scoping review aims to describe the characteristics of research on PCOS among adolescents, and summarise the available methods of diagnosing PCOS among adolescents in epidemiological research. This review followed the standard protocols by Arksey and O’Malley and adheres to the Preferred Reported Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Review (PRISMA-ScR) 2018 statement checklist. We included studies of female adolescents aged 13 to 18 years old and published from January 2011 up to December 2023. 341 articles were reviewed. Majority of the studies were observational and primarily conducted in Western countries, indicating the paucity of research on PCOS in Asian adolescents. The main limitations of existing studies are small sample size and potential admission bias due to the non-community-based nature of research. Additionally, the use of adult definitions for PCOS diagnosis in adolescent studies is also debatable. This scoping review assembles and provides insights into the characteristics of current PCOS studies in adolescents, aiming to guide future research directions in the field of PCOS.

Obesity among adolescent is a public health issue with increasing burden of disease. Predicting imbalanced health data with Machine Learning may introduce bias and lead to diminished model performance. Misclassification in healthcare data could lead to misdiagnosing a patient or failing to detect a health issue when it is present. The purpose of this study is to predict adolescent obesity using machine learning along with implementation of multiple approaches on the imbalanced dataset. This study used secondary dataset from National Health and Morbidity Survey 2017. Samples 13 – 17 years were selected for the classification. SPSS V26 was used for data pre-processing, data cleaning, and data analysis. Meanwhile, Python language used for prediction and evaluation of the models. Approaches on the imbalanced dataset including resampling method (Random Oversampling, Random Under-sampling) and hybrid method (SMOTE and ADASYN) were implemented. This dataset was used for the formation of predictive models on ML algorithm including Artificial Neural Network, Decision Tree, K-Nearest Neighbour, Logistic Regression, Naïve Bayes, Random Forest and Support Vector Machine. The performance of each model was evaluated and compared using accuracy, precision, recall, F- score and Area under the Curve (AUC). Random Oversampling approached with Decision Tree Algorithm performs the best with accuracy (91.35%), precision (0.93), recall (0.91), F- score (0.91) and AUC (0.91) for the prediction of obesity among adolescent in Malaysia. The presented ML model development workflow along with the imbalanced techniques can be adapted to other health survey-based studies and may be valuable for developing other clinical prediction models.

Introduction: Malnutrition in hospitalised patients is a problem that is frequently observed all around the world. Malnutrition in hospitalised patients is related to poor patient outcomes and high healthcare expenditures. The purpose of this study is to assess the nutrition risk and explore the associated risk factors of malnutrition among hospitalised patient. Methods: A cross-sectional study was done in Sarawak General Hospital located in Kuching, Sarawak using convenience sampling among adult aged 18 and above. The Malnutrition Screening Tool (MST) was used to assess the nutritional risk. Demographic characteristics, anthropometric and biochemical data were compared according to nutritional status. The chi-square test was performed to compare the differences between categorical variables. The risk factors of malnutrition were identified using logistic regression analysis. Result: A total of 207 respondents were involved in this study with 63.3% and 36.7% were male and female, respectively. Malnutrition risk was observed in 61.3% of respondents according to MST score. The malnutrition risk was significantly higher in older age, those who were admitted to oncology wards and those with lower BMI and impaired biochemical profile. Multivariate analysis revealed that age and BMI of less than 18.5 kg/m2 were the main factors contributing to the presence of risk of malnutrition. Conclusion: The risk of malnutrition is observed to be prevalent among hospitalised patients in Sarawak General Hospital. Therefore, it is important to have a routine nutritional screening and assessment to allow for early nutritional intervention and therapy.

Background: The effectiveness of lifestyle intervention for weight loss on cardiometabolic risk factors among overweight and obese individuals in the community setting remains inconclusive. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of a 6-month weight loss lifestyle intervention on cardiometabolic risk factors among overweight and obese women and the sustainability of the changes in those markers at 12-month follow-up, comparing an intervention group with a control group. Methods: A total of 243 participants from MyBFF@home were included in this study. Fasting blood samples at baseline, 6- and 12-month were assessed for fasting plasma glucose (FPG), total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and triglycerides. The effect of the intervention on cardiometabolic risk markers were investigated within and between study groups using t-test and general linear model (GLM) repeated measure ANOVA. Results: Results from repeated measures ANOVA showed intervention effect only in TC where significant reduction was found in the intervention group (− 0.26 mmol/L [95% CI: – 0.47 to − 0.06], p < 0.01) compared to the control group (− 0.06 mmol/L [95% CI: – 0.28 to 0.17]) at 12 months. At 6 months, TC was reduced significantly in both groups but only intervention group retained the reduction in maintenance phase while, the level increased significantly in the control group (0.22 mmol/L [95% CI: 0.06 to 0.38]). This attributed to significant increase in TC/HDL-C ratio in the control group during maintenance phase (0.32 [95% CI: 0.15 to 0.50], p < 0.001). The intervention group also showed trend of reduction in FPG at 6 months and further decreased during maintenance phase (− 0.19 mmol/L [95% CI: – 0. 32 to − 0.06], p < 0.01). At 6 months HDL-C was maintained in the intervention group but reduced significantly in the control group (− 0.05 mmol/L [95% CI: – 0.10 to − 0.01], p < 0.05). No significant difference was detected in both markers when compared between groups. Conclusions: In the context of low socio-economic communities, this study supports that weight loss related lifestyle modifications over a 6-month period could improve selected cardiometabolic risk factors, particularly fasting glucose, TC and HDL-C in overweight and obese women with favourable sustainability over a 12-month period.

INTRODUCTION: Unplanned pregnancy is a major public health concern globally. Numerous studies found various factors that can predict or determine unplanned pregnancy. However, there were no studies that reported this problem in Malaysia. The objective of this study is to determine the prevalence of unplanned pregnancy in Malaysia and the associated factors. METHODS: This nationwide cross-sectional study targeted to women at postpartum period at government primary health care clinics throughout Malaysia. Structured questionnaire with face-to-face interview was used for data collection. The factors studied included mothers’ age, husband’s age, ethnicity, religion, marital status, education, occupation, household income, polygamous marriage, family support, contraception used, and disagreement of husband on contraception, smoking and alcohol consumption. History of emotional, physical and sexual intimate partner violence (IPV) were also studied. RESULTS: A total of 5727 Malaysian postpartum mothers were involved in this survey. The prevalence of unplanned pregnancy was 42.9% (95% CI: 38.6, 47.4). The multivariate logistic regression revealed that older mothers aged 45-49 years old (aOR: 8.010; 95%CI: 1.909, 33.013) and Muslim mothers (aOR: 2.465; 95%CI: 1.432-4.241) were significantly associated with unplanned pregnancy. In terms of household income, mothers with less than RM1000 per month were 1.712 (95% CI: 1.080, 2.713) times more likely to have unplanned pregnancy. The other significant associated factor was history of emotional intimate partner violence; aOR [1.720 (95% CI: 1.011, 2.925)]. CONCLUSIONS: Unplanned pregnancies were observed to be higher among older Muslim women from low income family. A possibility of unmet need for family planning should be considered and appropriate intervention strategies planned for these at-risk population.

Background: Diabetes and obesity are established risk factors for stroke. The current study aimed to assess risk factors of ischemic stroke recurrence in diabetic patients based on their body mass index (BMI). Methods: A total of 4005 diabetic patients who had a history of ischemic stroke were identified in a retrospective cross-sectional dataset from the Malaysian National Neurology Registry. Patients were classified based on BMI, and multivariable regression analysis was used to evaluate the association between risk factors and recurrent ischemic stroke. Results: Among obese patients, those with ischemic heart disease (aOR, 1.873; 95% CI, 1.131–3.103), received formal education (aOR, 2.236; 95% CI, 1.306–3.830), and received anti-diabetic medication (aOR, 1.788; 95% CI, 1.180–2.708) had a higher stroke recurrence risk, while receiving angiotensin receptors blockers (aOR, 0.261; 95% CI, 0.126–0.543) lowered the odds of recurrence. Overweight patients with hypertension (aOR, 1.011; 95% CI, 1.002–1.019) for over 10 years (aOR, 3.385; 95% CI, 1.088–10.532) and diabetes prior to the first stroke (aOR, 1.823; 95% CI, 1.020–3.259) as well as those received formal education (aOR, 2.403; 95% CI, 1.126–5.129) had higher odds of stroke recurrence, while receiving angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (aOR, 0.244; 95% CI, 0.111–0.538) lowered the recurrence risk. Normal weight East Malaysians (aOR, 0.351; 95% CI, 0.164–0.750) receiving beta-blockers (aOR, 0.410; 95% CI, 0.174–0.966) had lower odds of stroke recurrence. Conclusions: Ischemic heart disease, hypertension, receiving anti-hypertensive agents, and educational level were independent predictors of recurrent stroke in obese patients. Managing the modifiable risk factors can decrease the odds of stroke recurrence.

Ruminants continue to be important in their traditional role in agricultural research and teaching. They are now also extensively used for studies in molecular biology; genetic engineering; and biotechnology for basic science, agricultural and clinical applications. Concern and interest for the welfare for these species and improved understanding of their biology and behavior have continued and are reflected in changing husbandry and management systems. This chapter addresses at high levels basic biology, husbandry, and the more common or important diseases of the three ruminant species used most commonly in the laboratory, namely sheep, goats and cattle.