Background: Self-efficacy is defined as his or her belief of their capacity to produce specific performance attainments where represent the ability of positive and negative control over their own motivation, behavior, and social environment. Interventions to increase self-efficacy are a potentially effective way of changing health behavior towards attractive results, however the subject has not been systematically reviewed. This review aims to assess the relationship between self-efficacy and change in good health behaviour. Methods:A comprehensive and extensive search of four bibliographic data bases was conducted for papers reporting health promotion and educational interventions that explicitly targeted self-efficacy in order to change health behaviour in achieving better disease control. Results:Out of 314 studies, 13 were included in the review. Of these, 8 were found to have significant association between self-efficacy and specific health behaviours. However, 5 studies failed to show any significant prediction towards health behavior. Another 6 studies showed either significant mediation effect or indirect relationship of self-efficacy and health behaviours. Conclusions:Self-efficacy appears to be an important psychosocial construct that may directly or indirectly affect health behaviour to control diseases. Self-efficacy may also function as a link between effective health promotion and educational interventions and health behaviour change in disease control.

Introduction: School based programme known as 'Doktor Muda' was established to empower school children using their knowledge and health skills to achieve better health status. ''Doktor Muda'' (DM) is a group involved a selection of trained school children that met certain criteria as peer educators in order to influence their peers' attitude and health practices. Methodology:A cross sectional study was carried out from March 2014 to January 2015. Qualitative data were collected by Focus Group Discussion (FGD) to identify peers perspective towards DM as a health promotion agent using a semi structured open ended questionnaire. The questionnaire was developed according to the relevant themes that identify the abilty of DM to influence their peers' attitude and health practices. Results:The findings showed that majority of participants admitted positive response towards information given by DM in their behavioural beliefs towards health. Majority of the participants agreed DM has succeeded in changing their attitudes toward the importance of health involving were participants' concern on health. However, some of the participants claimed negative response showed by the peers during dissemination of information by DM and participants' observations. Verification from the feedback groups regarding individual who influence their personal hygiene practice revealed 45.5% by their ownself, 36.4% by their parents/family and 36.4% by DM respectively. Conclusions:This study has succeeded in exploring peers' perspectives on the efficacy of DM as health promotion agent. Strengthening in positive beliefs among peers towards health, influencing positive attitudes to accentuate health and encouraging health practices at a moderate level were established in this study.

Kelab Doktor Muda (KDM) which translates as Young Doctors Club was established by the Ministry of Health (MOH) Malaysia to train a group of schoolchildren as educators in assisting their peers to adopt healthy practices. This research aims to assess the effectiveness of KDM as a peer education program to increase the health knowledge of school children, and instil healthy practices among schoolchildren by identifying the difference in the level of knowledge, attitude and health practice between school with KDM (SKDM) and school without KDM (NKDM). This is a nationwide comparative cross-sectional study between SKDM and NKDM. This study was carried out between March 2016 and March 2017. Data were obtained using a guided self-administered questionnaire through survey involving 2588 (1294 SKDM; 1294 NKDM) year 5 (11 years old) schoolchildren from 87 primary schools nationwide. The results revealed a significantly higher overall knowledge score of health practices, knowledge and practice score for No Smoking component, as well as hand hygiene knowledge in SKDM compared to NKDM. Schoolchildren in SKDM also had significantly lower BMI compared to NKDM, directly related to healthy eating, active lifestyle and ideal body weight, 3 of the 6 components in this program. As a conclusion, the program was found to be not only effective in increasing the overall knowledge of health practice among schoolchildren, but also results in a meaningful impact to the health of schoolchildren. Further improvements to the modules however should be undertaken to enable more comprehensive changes on the health practices of schoolchildren.

Background: Suicide is a global public health importance and a second leading cause of death in adolescents. It is more common among adolescents and is considered as a serious public health problem worldwide. This study aims to determine the association between health risk behavior with suicidal ideation, continuous sadness and depression among Malaysian youth. Methods:A cross-sectional study was carried out among 4088 youth aged 13-17 years old from 50 selected schools. A stratified random sampling was used to select respondents from different classes. The students were randomly selected using the same software throughout the country. Verbal consent was obtained from the student and parents prior to data collection. A standardized self-administered questionnaire adapted from the United States' Youth Behaviour Risk Surveillance Survey (YBRSS) were used. Results:The rates of Continuous Sadness (CS), Depression (DP) and Suicidal Ideation (SI) were 34.3%, 13.2% and 7.9% respectively. The multivariable-adjusted odds ratio showed that sexual abuse was associated with SI 8.04 (95% CI: 4.66, 13.84), CS 5.72 (95% CI: 3.21, 9.82) and DP 4.68% (95% CI: 2.80, 7.83); alcohol use was associated with SI 1.62 (95% CI: 1.06, 2.47) and DP 1.67 (95% CI: 1.20, 2.33). Female was associated with all suicidal behaviours: SI 2.48 (95% CI: 1.90, 3.24), CS 2.07 (95% CI: 1.80, 2.37) and DP 1.41 (95% CI: 2.17, 1.71). Smoking and drug was not associated with CS, DP and SI.Conclusions: Given the well-founded concern of increasing risk of suicidal behaviour among youth, preventive efforts should adopt a more comprehensive approach in dealing with sexual abuse and alcohol abuse, especially in female.

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