Highlights High prevalence of pornography exposure among participants and mostly through internet. Easy accessibility to free internet especially at home facilitate pornography use among young people. Further evidence is needed on perceived realism as a protective factor of pornography exposure. Male participants had earlier exposure on pornography during early adolescence.

Background The elderly population in Malaysia are projected to reach almost one third of the total population by 2040. The absence of a National Dementia Strategy (NDS) in preparing the healthcare services for the ageing population is compounded by the lack of assessment of preparedness of future healthcare workers to manage complications related to ageing i.e., dementia. Studies in countries with NDS demonstrated lack of dementia knowledge among medical undergraduates. Hence, this study aimed to assess the knowledge on dementia among final year medical undergraduates in Malaysia and its associated factors, using the Dementia Knowledge Assessment Scale (DKAS). Methods This cross-sectional study, employed multistage sampling method to recruit final year medical undergraduates from eleven selected public and private medical institutions across Malaysia. Online self-administered measures were delivered to final year medical undergraduates through representatives of medical students’ society after approval from Deanery and institutional ethics board of participating universities. The measure collected demographic information, previous dementia exposure (i.e., formal or informal) and the 25-item Likert scale DKAS. Bivariate analysis and linear regression were conducted to confirm factors influencing dementia knowledge components. Results A total of 464 respondents from 7 universities participated in this study. Overall dementia knowledge among respondents with and without exposure, was low, with average score of 29.60 ± 6.97 and 28.22 ± 6.98, respectively. DKAS subscales analysis revealed respondents scored highest in care consideration subscale (9.49 ± 2.37) and lowest in communication and behaviour subscale (4.38 ± 2.39). However, only causes and characteristic subscale recorded significantly higher knowledge score among respondents with previous exposure (7.88 ± 2.58) (p =0.015). Higher knowledge of dementia was associated with previous formal dementia education (p=0.037) and informal occupational/working experience in caring for dementia patients (p = 0.001). Informal occupational/working experience (B = 4.141, 95% CI 1.748–6.535, p = 0.001) had greater effect than formal education (i.e. lectures/workshops) (B = 1.393, 95% CI 0.086–2.700, p = 0.037) to influence respondents’ knowledge on dementia. Conclusion Dementia knowledge among final year medical undergraduates is low. To improve dementia knowledge, Malaysian medical curriculum should be reviewed to incorporate formal education and informal occupational/working experience, as early as in undergraduate training to help prepare future healthcare providers to recognise dementia among ageing Malaysians.

Performing self-care activities can be challenging but it is important for favourable outcomes of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). It may be influenced by psychological problems. Therefore, this study examined the level of self-care activities and the presence of psychological problems among patients with T2DM. The association between these activities and the psychological problems was assessed too. This cross-sectional study was conducted at a public health clinic in Sabah. Data was collected between July and September 2017 using a validated self-administered questionnaire which include the depression, anxiety and stress scale-21 (DASS-21) and the summary of diabetes self-care activities (SDSCA) questionnaire. About 91% of 331 participants took diabetes medications in ≥6 days per week. They followed a healthful eating plan, inspected feet and exercised 30 minutes a day in 5.0 (IQR 4.0), 4.0 (IQR 7.0) and 1.0 (IQR 4.0) days per week respectively. Among owners of glucometer, the median (IQR) of monitoring blood glucose was 1.0 (1.0) days per week. The participants with depression, anxiety and stress were 4.5%, 8.8% and 5.7% respectively. Following a healthful eating plan (p<0.001) was found to be significantly associated with anxiety; those with anxiety practised this activity in fewer days than those without anxiety. Generally, self-care activities were poorly practiced by the participants, except for taking diabetes medications.  Thus, the patients should be encouraged to improve their self-care activities. Psychological problems were also found to be uncommon.  However, anxiety symptoms should not be ignored as it may negatively affect their adherence to healthy diet.

This study aims to determine the prevalence of problematic smartphone use (PSU) among secondary school adolescents and to examine its relationship with psychological problems (depression, anxiety, and stress [Model 1], or the number of psychological problems [Model 2]). This cross-sectional study has utilised a self-administered questionnaire assessing the participants’ sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, pattern and purpose of usage, presence of PSU (via the Malay-version smartphone addiction scale-short version [SAS-SV]), and presence of psychological problems (via the depression-anxiety-stress scale-21 [DASS-21]). Four hundred and fourteen students aged 15–16 from five national secondary schools in Seremban and smartphone users have been recruited via cluster sampling. Students in remedial or special education classes, previously diagnosed with depression, anxiety or stress and absent on the day of data collection were excluded. The prevalence of PSU, probable depression, anxiety and stress were 43.5%, 31.6%, 48.3% and 26.8%, respectively. Most respondents reported mild to moderate severity for each psychological problem. However, three in ten respondents had multiple psychological problems. In both multiple logistic regression models, Malay students had higher daily usage, and the higher monthly costs were significantly associated with PSU when other confounding factors were controlled. A higher number of psychological problems was associated with PSU (adjusted odds ratio: 1.28, 95% confidence interval: 1.06–1.54; p=0.011) but not purpose of usage or individual psychological problem. PSU and psychological problems were prevalent among secondary school adolescents. These findings highlight the complex relationship between PSU and psychological problems that warrant further detailed studies.