Prevalence and Factors Associated with Smartphone Addiction among Adolescents–A Nationwide Study in Malaysia

Smartphone ownership among adolescents is getting common in this decade especially in Malaysia;Adolescent are strongly devoted to their smartphone and this may lead to smartphone addiction.Studies have reported that smartphone addiction has become an emerging social and health problem especially among the youth in many countries however there is lack of study among adolescents in Malaysia.This study aimed to examine the prevalence and factors associated with smartphone addiction among adolescents in Malaysia.This was a cross-sectional study involving adolescents from 15 primary care clinics throughout the country.Respondents were assessed on their smartphone activities using the Malaysian short version of the Smartphone addiction scale(SAS-M-SV).Multiple logistic regression was used to determine the predictors of smartphone addiction among adolescents.The study was conducted among 921 adolescents with 49.6%male(n=457).The mean age of adolescents was 16.4±2.4 years.The ethnicity distribution were 74.6%Malay,7.3%Chinese,4.7%Indian and 13.4%other ethnicities.The prevalence of smartphone addiction was 37.1%(342/921);37.4%in male and 36.9%in female.Based on multiple logistic regression analysis,longer duration of smartphone use per week was associated with higher odds of smartphone addiction among adolescent(odd ratio=1.005%,95%confidence interval=1.000–1.009,p-value=0.039).Smartphone addiction is present in nearly four in ten adolescents in Malaysia.Adolescents who spend longer duration in smartphone usage per week were associated with higher odds of having smartphone addiction.Parents should be more alert and vigilant about this finding.Hence,parents should limit their children from spending too much of time with smartphone in order to prevent their children from getting smartphone addiction.

Epidemiology of Helicobacter pylori among multiracial community in Northern Peninsular,Malaysia:effect of age across race and gender

Objective:To study the epidemiology of Helicobacter pylori(H.pylori) infection according to age group.Methods:H.pylori infection data among 1 965 consecutive patients referred to the Endoscopy Unit collected at Sungai Petani Hospital for oesophagogastro-duodenoscopy(OGD). The patients were divided into 9 age groups(10-19,20-29,30-39,40-49,50-59,60-69,70-79, 80-89 and 90-99 years).In addition these groups were further divided into three minor group namely young adults(10-39),older adults(40-69) and geriatric groups(70-99).Results:Overall prevalence of infection of H.pylori was analyzed and found that the prevalence increase with age (P【0.05).When the patients divided by ethnic and gender group with age,prevalence rate among young adults and older adults significantly higher(P【0.05) compared to geriatric groups across all races and gender(P【0.05).Furthermore,significantly higher number of males were infected compared to female(P【0.05) but such trend was only observed among older adult groups.In addition,there is a significant differences in H.pylori infection prevalence rates among ethnic groups(highest in Indians adults,followed Chinese and low in Malays,P【0.05).Conclusions: The overall prevalence of H.pylori did increase with age group across ethnicity and gender,in Northern Peninsular Malaysia.

Primary care for cancers at diagnosis and follow-up:a narrative review

This paper is concerned about the family physician’s role in early cancer diagnosis and follow-up with his/hers patients who have just been diagnosed with cancer;treatment modalities for cancer;and family physician continuous roles for patients who are under definitive cancer treatment,experiencing side-effects of cancer treatment;some of the effective means to reduce these side-effects during cancer treatment and management of oncologic emergencies.Having some knowledge on the current cancer therapies would undoubtedly help family physicians to follow up patients with cancer more confidently,to appreciate their side-effects,symptomatic treatment,recognize the limit of primary care and be even useful for counseling and consultation with patients or their family members with a family history of cancer.Systematic searches with terms comprised“cancer”,“malignancy”,“primary care”,“general practice”,“cancer AND diagnosis”and“cancer AND follow-up”were done in the major databases such as Pubmed,ScienceDirect and Ovid.We employed selective searches with the above terms and their combination in some of the major journal such as The Lancet Oncology,The Lancet,New England Journal of Medicine,etc.These were followed by snowballing the relevant articles from the citation of references in those selected papers.The goal of this narrative review is not to provide exhaustive documentation of sound evidence for practice of primary care for cancer patients at diagnosis and follow-up.It mainly aims to provide specific evidence-based information and suggestions that are thought to be relevant for primary care professionals and policymakers.