Objective: Smartphones have now become a common and almost essential tool in our daily living activities. Students are among those who use smartphones regularly, which could lead to addiction if overused. This study aims to measure the prevalence of smartphone addiction and its relationship with psychological health among clinical year medical students in International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM), Kuantan. Methods: A total of 226 medical students in their clinical years were recruited through quota sampling method. The students filled in a four-part online-based questionnaire consisted of questions on sociodemographic characteristics, smartphone usage information, smartphone addiction scale-short version, and WHOQOL-BREF. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics. Results: The prevalence of smartphone addiction among clinical year medical students in IIUM was 51%. Bivariate analysis showed that the majority of students chose social networking as their primary purpose of using a smartphone, and this was significantly associated with smartphone addiction (p=0.037). Following multiple logistic regression analysis, students who had chosen games as their primary purpose of smartphone users are 88% less likely to be related with smartphone addiction (p=0.009, 95% CI: 0.025–0.595) as compared to those who used it for academic performance tasks. Students who were not addicted to smartphones reported significantly better psychological quality of life compared to those who were addicted (p<0.001). Conclusion: Half of IIUM’s medical students in clinical years was found to have smartphone addiction, and those with smartphone addiction had poor psychological health. Immediate intervention such as creating awareness in the campus is important in curbing this problem.

Introduction: Studies have shown that caregiving is associated with high burden that could affect caregivers’ mental and physical well-being. Unfortunately, caregivers are often overlooked even by healthcare professionals. With the rise of our elderly population and morbidity from stroke, there is a need to assess the burden among family caregivers in our society. This study was carried out to determine the level of burden among caregivers of stroke patients attending Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia in Kelantan and to evaluate the possible risk factors associated with those with a burden. Methods: A total of 116 caregivers of stroke patients were interviewed. The participants were recruited from the Klinik Rawatan Keluarga in Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia. Caregivers were assessed for the level of burden using the Zarit Burden Interview. Results: The mean burden score among the caregivers was 25.42 (SD 6.45). The minimum burden score is 11 and the maximum score is 49. This study significantly found that caregivers who look after bedbound patients have higher levels of burden. While the caregiver burden is lower with higher household income and among caregivers who have secondary or tertiary education level. Conclusions: Factors that affect caregiver burden such as the condition of the patient, caregiver’s education level and household income should be taken into account in the evaluation of caregivers of stroke patients.

Background: Excessive screen time in young children is associated with many harmful consequences including screen dependency. Research has shown a worrying prevalence of media-related dependency among adolescents and pre-school children. There are a few available questionnaires among adolescents but none for pre-school children. This study aimed to design and validate a questionnaire to assess screen dependency among pre-school children aged 4 to 6 years old. Methodology: A cross-sectional two-phase study was carried out to develop the scale. In phase 1, a preliminary parent-report measure questionnaire was developed in Bahasa Malaysia. Later, it was sent to four experts for content validity followed by face validity. In Phase 2, a total of 386 parents of pre-school children aged 4 to 6 years old, split into two samples, were involved in the field study for exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Result: Sample 1 was used to perform EFA to determine the factorial structure of the SDS. All items with a factor loading of >0.4 were included. Sample 2 was used to perform the CFA. RMSEA and CFI analysis showed that the SDS has a good fit and confirms the dimensional structure found via EFA. The final questionnaire consists of 15 items with a 4 factors’ structure and has excellent internal consistency reliability. Conclusions: The Screen Dependency Scale (SDS) is a reliable and valid questionnaire to detect screen dependency among pre-school children aged 4 to 6 years old in Malaysia.

This study aimed to compare the effectiveness between listening to Quran and nature sounds on preoperative anxiety and physiological parameters. Using systematic random sampling, a randomized controlled trial study was conducted among 81 patients, which comprised of male and female patients allocated into three equal groups, that is, Quran recitation group, nature sounds group, and a control group. Preoperative state anxiety was measured using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (Embong, 2018), and physiological parameters were recorded before and after the intervention. After the intervention, the analysis within-subjects showed significant improvement in heart rate, respiratory rate, and state anxiety. However, post-hoc test showed that reduction in the mean state anxiety scores in all groups was the only significant factor. Paired analysis showed that only mean state anxiety level of nature sounds group has a significant reduction in comparison to control group; whereas there was nonsignificant difference in state anxiety of other paired groups when compared between both intervened groups and between Quran group and control group. The result concluded that listening to either the Quran or nature sounds were effective in reducing preoperative anxiety, however head-to-head comparison found no significant difference.

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