Background: This study provides population-based study of cancer incidence, mortality and survival rates for women diagnosed with epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC), and evaluate the prognostic factors of EOC patients survival in Brunei Darussalam.Methods: This is a retrospective study of patients diagnosed with EOC between 1st January 2007 and 31st December 2017 in Brunei Darussalam. Crude, age-specific, age-standardized incidence and mortality rates per 100,000 women were calculated. Kaplan-Meier method was used to determine the overall 5-years survival rate. Log-rank test was used to examine the differences in survival between groups. The multivariable Cox Proportional Hazard regression models were used to estimate the hazard ratio for overall survival and to identify the prognostic factors. Results: A total of 207 patients were included in the study. The crude incidence and mortality rates were 9.7 and 3.6 per 100,000 respectively while the age-standardized incidence and mortality rates were 11.3 (95% CI: 9.7,12.9) and 4.5 (95% CI: 3.4,5.6) per 100,000 respectively in the period 2007-2017. The overall mean age at diagnosis was 48.4 (standard deviation=15.3) years. The overall survival rates at 1, 3, and 5 years for EOC patients were 79.7%, 69.7%, and 61.4% respectively. Age at diagnosis, cancer stage, and histology were significant prognostic factors for patients’ survival. Older age at diagnosis (70 years vs <40 years), regional or advanced stage (vs localized stage) and having undifferentiated or other epithelial ovarian (vs serous carcinoma) were associated with having higher hazard of death. Conclusion: Early detection of disease should be emphasized through public education and raising awareness to improve survival rates of patients with EOC.

Background: This study aims to determine the survival rates for children and adolescents aged 0-19 years diagnosed with childhood cancer and to evaluate the associated factors for childhood cancer survival in Brunei Darussalam. Methods: The analysis was based on de-identified data of 263 childhood cancer for the period 2002 to 2017 retrieved from a population-based cancer registry. Overall survival was estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method. Univariate analysis, using the log-rank test, was used to examine the differences in survival between groups. Multivariate analysis, using the Cox Proportional Hazard (PH) regression model, was used to estimate the hazard ratios (HRs) and select the significant associated factors for childhood cancer patients' survival. Results: The overall 1-, 5-and 10-year survival rates for all childhood cancers combined were 79.4%, 70.0% and 68.8% respectively. The most common types of cancer were leukemias, malignant epithelial neoplasms, lymphomas and tumours of the central nervous system (CNS). The 5-year survival estimates were highest for malignant epithelial neoplasms (84.2%) while the lowest was tumours of the CNS (44.1%). Log rank tests showed significant differences in childhood cancer patients' survival between tumour types and period of diagnosis. In the Cox PH analysis, the presence of lymphomas, gonodal and germ cell neoplasms, and malignant epithelial neoplasms compared to leukemia; children aged 1-4 and 5-9 years compared to adolescents aged 15-19 years; and periods of diagnosis in 2002-2006 and 2007-2011 compared to 2012-2017 were significantly associated with lower hazard of death in this study. Conclusion: This study provides a baseline measurement of childhood cancer survival for monitoring and evaluation of cancer control programmes, to allow planning of cancer control program strategies such as surveillance, screening, and treatment to improve childhood survival rates in Brunei Darussalam.

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The second wave of Covid-19 pandemic in Brunei has forced all education providers to resort to online teaching and learning again, including Politeknik Brunei. This study aims to gain some insights of students’ and lecturers’ perspectives of online learning activities. The online questionnaire links were sent via email, where 989 students and 92 lecturers from across all schools under the polytechnic responded. Descriptive and inferential analysis were employed for all data collected. Overall, the findings suggest that the effectiveness of online learning at Politeknik Brunei is at a moderate level with a mean of 23.8 and a standard deviation of 4.13 (Cronbach’s α=0.71). There is no statistical significant difference in effectiveness of online learning among five different study focus groups as revealed by Tukey-Kramer post-hoc test. Meanwhile, the effectiveness of online teaching is also at a moderate level with a mean of 28.8 and a standard deviation of 3.72 (Cronbach’s α=0.68). The results also show that while the main challenge is internet instability for everyone, the main benefit is time and/or energy saved from travelling. Although online learning poses many limitations to everyone, it is probably high time to reconsider a permanent shift in the post pandemic education setting to prepare ourselves for the new norm. Keywords: Online-Learning, Pandemic, Effectiveness, Benefits, Challenges

The objective of this study is to examine the sociodemographic factors contributing to the readmission to a drug rehabilitation center among drug addicts in Brunei Darussalam. This retrospective study used de-identified data obtained from the Al-Islah Rehabilitation Center for the period 1 January 2010 to 31 December 2017. Univariate and multiple logistic regression analyses with a stepwise variable selection method were used to estimate and determine significant factors associated with readmission to the center. A total of 92 out of 705 subjects (13%) were readmitted to the rehabilitation center within the study period, with ages ranging from 20 to 59 years (M = 36.1, SD = 8.6 years). Multiple logistic regression found that subjects who were in the age group of 40 to 49 (OR = 2.24, 95% CI [1.16, 4.37]) resided in the Belait district (OR = 1.94, 95% CI [1.00, 3.63]), divorced or widowed (OR = 2.14, 95% CI [1.19, 3.82]), had committed other criminal offenses (OR = 1.91, 95% CI [1.16, 3.11]), and voluntarily admitted (OR = 2.33, 95% CI [1.34, 4.01]), were found to be significantly more likely to get readmitted to the rehabilitation center. This study provides evidence of sociodemographic factors in relation to readmission to the rehabilitation center in Brunei Darussalam.