Norkhafizah Saddki

Maxillofacial injuries associated with intimate partner violence in women.

BackgroundThe facial region has been the most common site of injury following violent episodes. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence and pattern of maxillofacial injuries associated with intimate partner violence (IPV) in women treated at a single facility in Malaysia.MethodsA retrospective review of 242 hospital records of female IPV victims who were seen at the One-Stop Crisis Centre (OSCC) in Hospital Raja Perempuan Zainab II, Kelantan over a two-year period (January 1, 2005 to December 31, 2006) was performed. A structured form was used for data collection. Information regarding the anatomical sites of injuries, types of injuries, and mechanisms of assault were obtained.ResultsMost victims were married (85.1%), were injured by the husband (83.5%), and had at least one previous IPV episode (85.5%). Injury to the maxillofacial region was the most common (50.4%), followed by injury to the limbs (47.9%). In 122 cases of maxillofacial injuries, the middle of the face was most frequently affected (60.6%), either alone or in combination with the upper or lower third of the face. Injury to soft tissues (contusions, abrasions and lacerations) was the most common (87.7%).ConclusionsThis study indicates there is a high prevalence of maxillofacial injuries associated with IPV among women treated at the OSCC in Kelantan, Malaysia.

Validity and Reliability of the Malay Version of WHO Women’s Health and Life Experiences Questionnaire

The Women’s Health and Life Experiences questionnaire measures the prevalence, health implications, and risk factors for domestic violence. This cross-sectional study was conducted to determine the validity and reliability of the Malay version of World Health Organization (WHO) Women’s Health and Life Experiences Questionnaire. Construct validity and reliability assessment of the Malay version of the questionnaire was done on 20 specific items that measure four types of intimate partner violence (IPV) act; controlling behaviors (CB), emotional violence (EV), physical violence (PV), and sexual violence (SV), which were considered as the domains of interest. Face-to-face interviewing method was used for data collection. A total of 922 women completed the interviews. The results showed that exploratory factor analysis of four factors with eigenvalues above 1 accounted for 63.83% of the variance. Exploratory factor analysis revealed that all items loaded above 0.40 and the majority of items loaded on factors that were generally consistent with the proposed construct. The internal consistency reliability was good. The Cronbach’s α values ranged from 0.767 to 0.858 across domains. The Malay version of WHO Women’s Health and Life Experiences Questionnaire is a valid and reliable measure of women’s health and experiences of IPV in Malaysia.

Association between Emotional Intelligence and Perceived Stress in Undergraduate Dental Students

BACKGROUND This study investigated the association of emotional intelligence (EI) and other factors with perceived stress (PS) in undergraduate dental students. METHODS A total of 234 undergraduate dental students at the School of Dental Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), in the academic year of 2009/2010, participated in this cross-sectional study. Self-administered questionnaires, the Assessing Emotions Scale and the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10), were used to evaluate EI and PS, respectively. RESULTS The mean EI score was 121.2 (SD 11.85). The scores were significantly higher in females than males, and in students who chose dentistry based on their own interest rather than in those who were motivated by others to study dentistry. The mean PSS-10 score was 21.2 (SD 5.08). Pearson correlation analysis indicated a significant inverse relationship between EI and PSS-10 scores (r = -0.337). Multi-variable regression analysis also indicated a significant negative linear association between EI and PSS-10 scores (b = -0.156, 95% CI: -0.207, -0.104). PSS-10 scores were significantly higher for students who were in the clinical years rather than the preclinical years. CONCLUSIONS This study of USM undergraduate dental students shows that a low EI, female sex, and being in the clinical years were significant predictors of PS.

Psychometric properties of the Malay version of the Medical Outcomes Study Social Support Survey (MOS-SSS) in a sample of patients with HIV

ABSTRACT We determined the validity and reliability of the Malay translated MOS-SSS. A sample of 120 HIV patients participated in this study. Forty patients completed the self-administered 19-item questionnaire again after 1–2 weeks to test its reliability. Exploratory factor analysis resulted in four-factor solution which was consistent with the original subscales. All items had primary factor loadings > 0.40 without cross-loading. The Cronbach’s alpha values for the subscales ranged from 0.87–0.95. Intraclass correlation coefficient for the overall scale was 0.88. In conclusion, the Malay version of the MOS-SSS is valid and reliable for measuring perceived functional social support in patients with HIV.

A Hybrid Selection Method Based on HCELFS and SVM for the Diagnosis of Oral Cancer Staging

A diagnostic model based on Support Vector Machines (SVM) with a proposed hybrid feature selection method is developed to diagnose the stage of oral cancer in patients. The hybrid feature selection method, named Hybrid Correlation Evaluator and Linear Forward Selection (HCELFS), combines the advantages of filters and wrappers to select the optimal feature subset from the original feature set. In HCELFS, Correlation Attribute Evaluator acts as filters to remove redundant features and Linear Forward Selection with SVM acts as the wrappers to select the ideal feature subset from the remaining features. This study conducted experiments in WEKA with ten fold cross validation. The experimental results with oral cancer data sets demonstrate that our proposed model has a better performance than well-known feature selection algorithms.

HIV-related knowledge among people living with HIV/AIDS in Kelantan, Malaysia

ABSTRACT The authors of this cross-sectional study aims to translate and validate the brief HIV Knowledge Questionnaire (HIV-KQ-18) into Malay language, to assess HIV-related knowledge and its sociodemographic predictors among a sample of people living with HIV/AIDS in Kelantan, Malaysia. A total of 160 HIV patients participated in this study. The Malay version of HIV-KQ-18 showed good internal consistency with Cronbach’s α value of .78. Intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.76 (95% confidence interval, 0.61 to 0.85). The HIV-KQ-18 score was normally distributed with a mean of 9.7 (SD = 3.78). The mean percentage of correct responses was 53.7 (SD = 21.0). Higher education level and longer period of living with HIV were significantly associated with better HIV knowledge. In conclusion, the Malay version of HIV-KQ-18 is a valid and reliable instrument to assess HIV-related knowledge, which was found to be lacking in certain aspects among our sample.