Introduction: Osteoporotic fracture is a major public health problem in the pre and peri-menopausal period, associated with substantial morbidity, socio-economic burden and mortality. Poor knowledge and practice related to osteoporosis have been noted worldwide. In Malaysia, few studies have measured the knowledge and practice of osteoporosis among women. Objectives: This study aimed to determine the knowledge and practices of osteoporosis preventive measures among women in Hospital USM. Methods: A cross-sectional study using a validated, self-administered questionnaire about knowledge and practices of osteoporosis measures was employed with 185 hospitalized women in Hospital USM. A simple random sampling was used for the recruitment of participants. The data were analyzed using Chi-Square tests. Results: The Majority of the participants, 67%, belong to 45 -55 age group with a mean age of 50.35 years. The findings indicate 40.5% had a good level of knowledge towards osteoporosis, while 53.5% had a poor practice level. Conclusion: Knowledge of osteoporosis and practices is still at a fair level, affecting osteoporosis prevention practices. Time was spend watching television. Therefore, public health strategies should also be developed in Malaysia to increase women's knowledge of osteoporosis prevention and change lifestyle habits.

Covid 19 is one of the causes of stress among pregnant women. Stress increases the risk of complications in pregnancy and birth. The objectives were to assess the stress level among pregnant women attending Obstetrics and Gynecology Clinic at Hospital Sains Malaysia and find an association between stress levels during the COVID-19 pandemic and related factors (employment status, education level, and physical activity). The research design used in this study is cross-sectional -a self-administered questionnaire involving 207 pregnant mothers using simple random sampling methods. Most respondents had mild stress, 60.4%, followed by 39.6%, moderate and non-having high stress. There was a statistically significant association between stress level and employment status (p=0.003). Thus, early detection can prevent complications and enable mothers to go through pregnancy happily.

Many reports recently showed the worried outcomes such as neonatal pneumonia, preterm birth, postpartum infections to the mother, and COVID-19 vertical transmission to the foetus happened in pregnancy [1,5-6]. COVID-19 vaccination is an effective and safe approach to controlling the pandemic and decreasing associated morbidity and mortality [2]. Pregnant women are more likely develop more severe symptoms of COVID-19 than their non-pregnant peers [3]. Also, there is still less study conducted in Malaysia to assess COVID-19 vaccine acceptance among pregnant women.   This cross-sectional study aimed to determine the COVID-19 vaccine acceptance rate among pregnant women in Hospital USM. Initially, 367 respondents estimated using Raosoft Software but only 254 were recruited using simple random sampling method. The link of the questionnaire was given through a WhatsApp platform. The questionnaire used were adapted from Goncu Ayhan [4] consists of three parts: sociodemographic data, acceptance rates of COVID-19 vaccine and the reasons for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine. The questionnaire was translated to Bahasa Malaysia, checked by the Language Unit USM, and validated by the experts, three nursing lecturers. The Cronbach Alpha result from the pilot test was 0.744. The data were analysed using IBM SPSS system version 26.0 and the significant level (α value) was set at 5% for all statistical analyses. All null hypotheses will be rejected if (p<0.05). The Descriptive Analysis test and the Pearson Chi-Square test were used to analyse the data. Both Human Research Ethics Committee USM and Obstetrics & Gynaecology Department in Hospital USM have approved this study. No conflict of interest in the study.   A total of 254 pregnant women, most of them being 198 were aged 20 to 35, 246 were Malays, 180 respondents with college/university education, and 110 housewives. The 68 prevalence of participants' household incomes ranged from RM1000 to RM1999 and RM4000-RM4999, and their gravida and parity are primarily at 2-3 times, with the majority occurring between 20 and 30 weeks of gestation (Table 1). This study included only 58 pregnant women who had comorbidities during their pregnancy. The results revealed pregnant women in Hospital USM had moderate acceptance of COVID-19 (M=70.00, SD=14.629) with a minimal percentage of 55% and a maximal percentage of 82%. It was revealed that 174 (68.5%) showed moderate acceptance while 42 (16.5%) showed high acceptance. Meanwhile, only 38 (15%) indicate low acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccine.   The main reasons for them to refuse the vaccine were lack of data on the safety of the COVID-19 vaccination in pregnant women, they believed that if they are sick, both mother and baby will not encounter any negative effects, and some of the family members were hesitant to be vaccinated. This study also examined the correlation between the COVID-19 vaccine acceptance rate and sociodemographic factors using Pearson's Chi- Square test. There was a significant correlation between age, educational level, career, household income, gravida, and parity with the COVID-19 vaccine acceptance rates (p<0.05). Yet, there was no significant correlation between ethnicity, gestational age, or comorbidities with the acceptance rate of the COVID-19 vaccine.   In conclusion, the acceptance rate of the COVID-19 vaccine among pregnant women needs to be increased to reduce the risk of worse complications if contracting the COVID-19 disease. Health education regarding the importance of the COVID-19 vaccine can be delivered during every antenatal visit. Since this study was conducted in hospital settings which include clinics, the pregnant women shall be familiar with the updated regulations of the health systems. This benefits the nurses to increase their efforts for pregnant women to accept those two doses followed by taking the booster willingly. If this succeeds, the risk of them contracting the coronavirus disease and getting complications from it will be eliminated.

Introduction: Knowledge of COVID-19 and the practices towards the prevention of COVID-19 are crucial especially among health sciences students who are required to do a clinical placement at a hospital. This study aimed to assess the knowledge on COVID-19 and practice of COVID-19 prevention among university students. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted via a web-based survey. A total of 273 students of the medical, dental and health sciences programs were invited to participate in this study using stratified random sampling methods. A set of questionnaires developed by WHO training material for identification, prevention, response, and control of COVID-19 was used. Results: Most of the respondents were fourth year students (37.4%) age of 22 years old. The mean of total knowledge score was 23.14 ± 1.50. The overall mean score for the practice towards prevention of COVID-19 was 30.06 ± 3.03. The findings revealed that 71.1% students had good knowledge while 28.9% of them had poor knowledge regarding COVID-19.  Half (58.6%) of the students have good practice and 41.4% had poor practice of COVID-19 prevention. There is no significant correlation of knowledge on COVID-19 and the practice of COVID-19 prevention. Conclusion: This study emphasizes the need for continuous education and a regular reminder to the student population involved in the clinical area regarding infectious disease prevention.