Background: COVID-19 related knowledge, attitude and practice plays a major role in determining the readiness of the community to adopt the behavioural change towards recommended preventive measures outlined by public health officials. This study aims to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding COVID-19 among university students as well as its associated factors. Method: This is a cross sectional study that was conducted among students in a public university during the early phase of COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia. An online validated self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data. Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal Wallis test was used to determine the association between independent variables with knowledge, attitude, and practice score.Results: Overall response rate of this study was 92.9 (n=524). Median score of knowledge domain was 78.0 (IQR= ±12.0), median attitude score of 49.0 (IQR= ±5.0), and median practice score of 80.0 (IQR= ±11.0). The mean knowledge, attitude and practice score were significantly higher among diploma holder (vs degree holder, p<0.05), residing in main Kota Kinabalu campus (vs non-KK campus, p<0.001), studying in medical faculty (vs non-medical faculty, p<0.001), and attended COVID-19 education (vs non-attendance; p<0.05).Conclusion: COVID-19 related knowledge and attitude were below satisfactory level during earlier phase of the pandemic. However, majority of respondents have positive behaviour towards COVID-19 prevention. This highlights the importance of accurate and tailored health education to improve the level of knowledge, attitude and practice of recommended measures to prevent COVID-19 spread.

It is presumed that the level of physical activity (PA) declines during a person’s lifespan, particularly during adolescence. The main objective of this scoping review is to summarize and identify the current literature that addresses contributing factors related to adolescent physical inactivity. This scoping review was carried out using the framework suggested by Arskey and O'Malley. The literature review was undertaken using the reference period between 2008 and 2014, based primarily on the PubMed, Cochrane and Embase databases. Additional studies have been identified by a manual bibliography search. Search term included adolescent / youth / teenage, factors / determinants /correlations, and physical inactivity/decline exercise. A total of 23 studies met the inclusion criteria. This scoping review found some evidence of the association between physical inactivity and the following variables: Age, sex, socio-economic status, lack of social support from parents, family and friends have had an impact on their motivation to perform PA on a continuous basis. Also, the lack of awareness, attitudes, and practices of individuals themselves for not doing PA has affected their interest in maintaining PA. It is noted that the environment also plays an important role, such as inadequate facilities and facilities, as well as an unsuitable place or setting that is unconducive and a neighbourhood that does not take care of or is aware of a healthy lifestyle, is also a contributing factor to physical inactivity. The decline in PA during adolescence is a consistent finding in the literature. However, PA interventions should be developed through education, family programs, behavioural or environmental and policy changes.

INTRODUCTION: In Malaysia, the annual death due to smoking habits recorded as more than 23 thousand yearly. Hence smoking cessation should be emphasized to reduce the annual mortality and morbidity. The purpose of this study is to identify the help-seeking behavior in smoking cessation among adult smokers and to determine its influencing factors during the Full Movement Control Order (FMCO) in Malaysia. MATERIALS AND METHOD: Data were collected from cross-sectional surveys of Malaysian adult smokers. The questionnaire was distributed online through the official social media account of the Ministry of Health Malaysia (MOHM) which commenced from 31st May 2021 in conjunction with the World No Tobacco Day. A multivariate binomial logistic regression was employed to analyze the relationship model between the predictors with the help-seeking for smoking cessation. RESULT: Out of 2,545 Malaysian adult smokers who have responded, 2,303 were males (90.5% of respondents) with mean age(sd) of 34.82(8.11) years (18 to 77 years). Slightly half (n=1353, 53%) have reported seeking help for smoking cessation and (n=1468, 57.7%) reported being unaware of the quitline services. Factors, such as quit smoking attempt (OR; 1.844, 95% CI = 1.384-2.458), Covid-19 pandemic situation (OR; 1.841, 95% CI= 1.553-2.183), being married (OR: 1.279, 95% CI = 1.04-1.57), unaware about quitline services (OR; 0.660, 95% CI = 0.557-0.781), non-alcohol drinkers (OR; 0.658, 95% CI = 0.473-0.916) significantly predicted the behaviour of help-seeking for smoking cessation. CONCLUSION: The results of this study would potentially support public health efforts in Malaysia in further enhancing health promotion and education programs as well as further strengthen the policy towards quit smoking issues.

Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease that can affect and cause damage to several human organs such as the skin, kidneys, muscles, joints, lungs, heart and brain. Uncontrolled relapses in SLE patients can lead to death. SLE patients and their families also face difficulties due to lack of information about the disease. Therefore, studies focused on the psychological aspects such as symptoms of anxiety and depression among SLE patients is still needed in Malaysia. Thus, this study investigated the psychological status of SLE such as the occurrence of anxiety and depression in SLE patients and its associated factors. A cross sectional study using the purposive sampling was carried out at University Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre (UKMMC). Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale questionnaires were used to occurrence of anxiety and depression respectively. Out of 150 SLE patients participated, 46.6% had anxiety while another 33.3% experienced severe depression. Anxiety and depression were significantly correlated with socio demographic factors such as gender (p = 0.006, p = 0.003 respectively), level of education (p = 0.028, p = 0.003 respectively), and monthly income (p = 0.008, p = 0.001 respectively). Overall, socio demographic factors have important influence on the occurrence of anxiety and depression in patients with SLE. Mental health issue among SLE patient in Malaysia should be taken into consideration by health care provider especially by medical social worker.

Smoking cessation is a major public health goal today as smoking has threatened the safety, health, and lives of millions of people in the global community. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify the role of biopsychosocial and spiritual factors towards the readiness to quit smoking and smoking cessation. The results of the study found that smoking behaviour adversely affects not only the biological aspects but also the psychological, social, and spiritual aspects. Apart from that, this study also found that the biological, psychological, social, and spiritual aspects also play an important role in determining the motivation of smokers to quit smoking holistically. Therefore, research and empirical evidence on the biopsychosocial and spiritual aspects are needed to help healthcare teams to identify the barriers and motivating factors to quit smoking.