Teresa Sui Mien Yong - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Teresa Sui Mien Yong

Through the analysis of stages of delays conceived by Anderson's Model of Delay, the first three ... more Through the analysis of stages of delays conceived by Anderson's Model of Delay, the first three delays mainly focused on the individual while the fourth and final stages falls mainly on the health care providers or health care system factors. From this study, the first three delays range from misinterpretation of symptoms, disbeliefs of having risk of cancer, denial, lack of support and most of all the view of the patient on the severity condition and help seeking. Besides that, adding the delay also attributed to the health provider diagnosis, treatment efficiency, health system management, and situational limitations during the COVID pandemic affected the health services.

Global Journal of Health Science Vol 16, No 8, 2024

High consumption of sodium is often associated with an increased risk of hypertension, heart dise... more High consumption of sodium is often associated with an increased risk of hypertension, heart disease, and premature death. Thus, it is vital to have comprehensive data on knowledge, practices, and health literacy levels pertaining to sodium intake for strategized and informed public health initiatives. This study aims to adapt and validate the Chinese Health Literacy Scale for Low Salt Consumption-Hong Kong population (CHLSalt-HK) instrument to be used as assessment tool on health literacy pertaining to salt intake among Malaysian adults and this paper reports the translation and validation process of the instrument. The original CHLSalt-HK in English was translated to Malay by using forward-backward translation, and the preliminary version was obtained with cross-cultural adaptation based on review by three technical experts. A cognitive testing was conducted among 30 patients based on sociodemographic differences such as ethnicity, location, and education level. Their feedback was gained pertaining to comprehension of the instrument in terms of language and terminologies used, the flow and clarity of the instructions, and the questions given. The improvised version of the instrument was then pre-tested among 200 adults' respondents in Klang Valley for the reliability purposes. The internal consistency of the instrument was acceptable, with Cronbach's alpha values ranging between 0.624 and 0.830 and 0.825 for the entire instrument. The temporal stability was good, and the intraclass correlation coefficient was >0.6. The adapted and translated version CHLSalt-HK demonstrates adequate psychometric properties for measuring health literacy pertaining to salt intake among Malaysian populations.

International Journal For Multidisciplinary Research, Nov 21, 2023

International Journal For Multidisciplinary Research, Mar 28, 2024

The Lancet Regional Health - Western Pacific, 2022

Background Low vaccine uptake has the potential to seriously undermine COVID-19 vaccination progr... more Background Low vaccine uptake has the potential to seriously undermine COVID-19 vaccination programs, as very high coverage levels are likely to be needed for virus suppression to return life to normal. We aimed to determine the influence of vaccine attributes (including access costs) on COVID-19 vaccination preferences among the Malaysian public to improve national uptake. Methods An online Discrete Choice Experiment (DCE) was conducted on a representative sample of 2028 Malaysians. Respondents were asked to make vaccination decisions in a series of hypothetical scenarios. A nested, mixed logit model was used to estimate the preferences for vaccination over vaccine refusal and for how those preferences varied between different sub-populations. The attributes were the risk of developing severe side effects of the vaccine, vaccine effectiveness, vaccine content, vaccination schedule, and distance from home to vaccination centre. Findings Reported public uptake of COVID-19 vaccination was primarily influenced by the risk of developing severe side effects (b = À1¢747, 95% CI = À2¢269,-1¢225), vaccine effectiveness (b = 3¢061, 95% CI = 2¢628, 3¢494) and its Halal status (b = 3¢722, 95% CI = 3¢152, 4¢292). Other factors such as appointment timing and travel distance to the vaccination centre also had an effect on vaccine uptake. There was substantial heterogeneity in preferences between different populations, particularly for age groups, ethnicity, regions, and underlying health conditions. Interpretation Perceived effectiveness and side effects are likely to affect COVID-19 vaccine uptake in Malaysia. Halal content is critical to Malays' vaccination choices. Reducing the physical distance to vaccination centres, particularly in rural areas where uptake is lower, is likely to improve uptake.

Malaysian Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2022

One of the first critical recommendations made by the Malaysian government as part of the COVID-1... more One of the first critical recommendations made by the Malaysian government as part of the COVID-19 prevention measures was social distancing, also known as physical distancing. It has thus become necessary to determine to what extent this measure has successfully prevented the spread of the virus. However, the public has mixed feelings about this topic, so a study is required to understand the present situation. This study aims to assess the public's understanding, attitude, and practice regarding social distancing, particularly during the early stages of the Movement Control Order (MCO). An online survey was conducted from 19 June to 19 July 2020. The study also applied non-probability sampling, an unrestricted, selfselected survey, and the adopted snowballing method. The

Malaysian Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities (MJSSH)

One of the first critical recommendations made by the Malaysian government as part of the COVID-1... more One of the first critical recommendations made by the Malaysian government as part of the COVID-19 prevention measures was social distancing, also known as physical distancing. It has thus become necessary to determine to what extent this measure has successfully prevented the spread of the virus. However, the public has mixed feelings about this topic, so a study is required to understand the present situation. This study aims to assess the public's understanding, attitude, and practice regarding social distancing, particularly during the early stages of the Movement Control Order (MCO). An online survey was conducted from 19 June to 19 July 2020. The study also applied non-probability sampling, an unrestricted, self-selected survey, and the adopted snowballing method. The study concluded that the general public has a high knowledge, practice, and a positive attitude toward physical distancing. In conclusion, human nature is influenced by their understanding, attitudes, percept...

Social distancing (SD) is one of Ministry of Malaysia's (MOH) key recommended prevention measures... more Social distancing (SD) is one of Ministry of Malaysia's (MOH) key recommended prevention measures for COVID-19. It's important to assess public's knowledge, attitude and perceived benefit of SD practices as health experts globally are advising public to practice SD diligently to minimize the spread of virus. This study aimed to assess public's understanding, practice and perceptions related to Social Distancing during COVID-19 CONCLUSION Survey finding shows public have high awareness level and positive attitude towards Social Distancing (SD) practice, however further analysis need to be done to conclude whether high knowledge and positive attitude contributes to proper adherence of SD practices. However only 82% agree they will adhere strictly to SD as how they used to do during MCO. On perceived benefit of SD, more than 90% agree SD practices reduce personal risk of COVID 19 infection and stops the transmission at community level, however only 67.8% agree practice of SD reduce loss of life due to COVID 19. This possibly can be attributed to risk aversion towards COVID 19 among Malaysians, as we have lower death rates due to this diseases compared to other countries that was severely affected like US, UK, Italy, Brazil etc. Therefore Malaysian public may associate severity of COVID 19 as very infectious disease but not life threatening

Global Journal of Health Science, 2020

INTRODUCTION: Risky sexual behavior is defined as a behavior that increases one’s risk of contrac... more INTRODUCTION: Risky sexual behavior is defined as a behavior that increases one’s risk of contracting or being infected by sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and experiencing unintended pregnancies. This study examined the relationship between religiosity and risky sexual behavior among adolescents in the state of Sarawak, Malaysia. METHODS: The inclusion criteria included 1,146 unmarried adolescents aged between 16 and 19 years, whereby they answered a validated self-administered questionnaire using the modified Religion Scale and Risky Sexual Behavior – Unsafe Sex Scale. The analysis was restricted to respondents who reported to have had sex. RESULTS: Overall, the response rate recorded 95% (n=1,086), whereby the prevalence of respondents who reported that they have had sex was 9.5%, n=103 (71 males, 32 females, mean age 17.82). Descriptive results further showed that the prevalence of those who have had sex for male and female were 6.53% and 2.94%, respectively. The earliest...

Through the analysis of stages of delays conceived by Anderson's Model of Delay, the first three ... more Through the analysis of stages of delays conceived by Anderson's Model of Delay, the first three delays mainly focused on the individual while the fourth and final stages falls mainly on the health care providers or health care system factors. From this study, the first three delays range from misinterpretation of symptoms, disbeliefs of having risk of cancer, denial, lack of support and most of all the view of the patient on the severity condition and help seeking. Besides that, adding the delay also attributed to the health provider diagnosis, treatment efficiency, health system management, and situational limitations during the COVID pandemic affected the health services.

Global Journal of Health Science Vol 16, No 8, 2024

High consumption of sodium is often associated with an increased risk of hypertension, heart dise... more High consumption of sodium is often associated with an increased risk of hypertension, heart disease, and premature death. Thus, it is vital to have comprehensive data on knowledge, practices, and health literacy levels pertaining to sodium intake for strategized and informed public health initiatives. This study aims to adapt and validate the Chinese Health Literacy Scale for Low Salt Consumption-Hong Kong population (CHLSalt-HK) instrument to be used as assessment tool on health literacy pertaining to salt intake among Malaysian adults and this paper reports the translation and validation process of the instrument. The original CHLSalt-HK in English was translated to Malay by using forward-backward translation, and the preliminary version was obtained with cross-cultural adaptation based on review by three technical experts. A cognitive testing was conducted among 30 patients based on sociodemographic differences such as ethnicity, location, and education level. Their feedback was gained pertaining to comprehension of the instrument in terms of language and terminologies used, the flow and clarity of the instructions, and the questions given. The improvised version of the instrument was then pre-tested among 200 adults' respondents in Klang Valley for the reliability purposes. The internal consistency of the instrument was acceptable, with Cronbach's alpha values ranging between 0.624 and 0.830 and 0.825 for the entire instrument. The temporal stability was good, and the intraclass correlation coefficient was >0.6. The adapted and translated version CHLSalt-HK demonstrates adequate psychometric properties for measuring health literacy pertaining to salt intake among Malaysian populations.

International Journal For Multidisciplinary Research, Nov 21, 2023

International Journal For Multidisciplinary Research, Mar 28, 2024

The Lancet Regional Health - Western Pacific, 2022

Background Low vaccine uptake has the potential to seriously undermine COVID-19 vaccination progr... more Background Low vaccine uptake has the potential to seriously undermine COVID-19 vaccination programs, as very high coverage levels are likely to be needed for virus suppression to return life to normal. We aimed to determine the influence of vaccine attributes (including access costs) on COVID-19 vaccination preferences among the Malaysian public to improve national uptake. Methods An online Discrete Choice Experiment (DCE) was conducted on a representative sample of 2028 Malaysians. Respondents were asked to make vaccination decisions in a series of hypothetical scenarios. A nested, mixed logit model was used to estimate the preferences for vaccination over vaccine refusal and for how those preferences varied between different sub-populations. The attributes were the risk of developing severe side effects of the vaccine, vaccine effectiveness, vaccine content, vaccination schedule, and distance from home to vaccination centre. Findings Reported public uptake of COVID-19 vaccination was primarily influenced by the risk of developing severe side effects (b = À1¢747, 95% CI = À2¢269,-1¢225), vaccine effectiveness (b = 3¢061, 95% CI = 2¢628, 3¢494) and its Halal status (b = 3¢722, 95% CI = 3¢152, 4¢292). Other factors such as appointment timing and travel distance to the vaccination centre also had an effect on vaccine uptake. There was substantial heterogeneity in preferences between different populations, particularly for age groups, ethnicity, regions, and underlying health conditions. Interpretation Perceived effectiveness and side effects are likely to affect COVID-19 vaccine uptake in Malaysia. Halal content is critical to Malays' vaccination choices. Reducing the physical distance to vaccination centres, particularly in rural areas where uptake is lower, is likely to improve uptake.

Malaysian Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2022

One of the first critical recommendations made by the Malaysian government as part of the COVID-1... more One of the first critical recommendations made by the Malaysian government as part of the COVID-19 prevention measures was social distancing, also known as physical distancing. It has thus become necessary to determine to what extent this measure has successfully prevented the spread of the virus. However, the public has mixed feelings about this topic, so a study is required to understand the present situation. This study aims to assess the public's understanding, attitude, and practice regarding social distancing, particularly during the early stages of the Movement Control Order (MCO). An online survey was conducted from 19 June to 19 July 2020. The study also applied non-probability sampling, an unrestricted, selfselected survey, and the adopted snowballing method. The

Malaysian Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities (MJSSH)

One of the first critical recommendations made by the Malaysian government as part of the COVID-1... more One of the first critical recommendations made by the Malaysian government as part of the COVID-19 prevention measures was social distancing, also known as physical distancing. It has thus become necessary to determine to what extent this measure has successfully prevented the spread of the virus. However, the public has mixed feelings about this topic, so a study is required to understand the present situation. This study aims to assess the public's understanding, attitude, and practice regarding social distancing, particularly during the early stages of the Movement Control Order (MCO). An online survey was conducted from 19 June to 19 July 2020. The study also applied non-probability sampling, an unrestricted, self-selected survey, and the adopted snowballing method. The study concluded that the general public has a high knowledge, practice, and a positive attitude toward physical distancing. In conclusion, human nature is influenced by their understanding, attitudes, percept...

Social distancing (SD) is one of Ministry of Malaysia's (MOH) key recommended prevention measures... more Social distancing (SD) is one of Ministry of Malaysia's (MOH) key recommended prevention measures for COVID-19. It's important to assess public's knowledge, attitude and perceived benefit of SD practices as health experts globally are advising public to practice SD diligently to minimize the spread of virus. This study aimed to assess public's understanding, practice and perceptions related to Social Distancing during COVID-19 CONCLUSION Survey finding shows public have high awareness level and positive attitude towards Social Distancing (SD) practice, however further analysis need to be done to conclude whether high knowledge and positive attitude contributes to proper adherence of SD practices. However only 82% agree they will adhere strictly to SD as how they used to do during MCO. On perceived benefit of SD, more than 90% agree SD practices reduce personal risk of COVID 19 infection and stops the transmission at community level, however only 67.8% agree practice of SD reduce loss of life due to COVID 19. This possibly can be attributed to risk aversion towards COVID 19 among Malaysians, as we have lower death rates due to this diseases compared to other countries that was severely affected like US, UK, Italy, Brazil etc. Therefore Malaysian public may associate severity of COVID 19 as very infectious disease but not life threatening

Global Journal of Health Science, 2020

INTRODUCTION: Risky sexual behavior is defined as a behavior that increases one’s risk of contrac... more INTRODUCTION: Risky sexual behavior is defined as a behavior that increases one’s risk of contracting or being infected by sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and experiencing unintended pregnancies. This study examined the relationship between religiosity and risky sexual behavior among adolescents in the state of Sarawak, Malaysia. METHODS: The inclusion criteria included 1,146 unmarried adolescents aged between 16 and 19 years, whereby they answered a validated self-administered questionnaire using the modified Religion Scale and Risky Sexual Behavior – Unsafe Sex Scale. The analysis was restricted to respondents who reported to have had sex. RESULTS: Overall, the response rate recorded 95% (n=1,086), whereby the prevalence of respondents who reported that they have had sex was 9.5%, n=103 (71 males, 32 females, mean age 17.82). Descriptive results further showed that the prevalence of those who have had sex for male and female were 6.53% and 2.94%, respectively. The earliest...

Majority of respondents are not aware of recommended daily salt intake level of and relationship ... more Majority of respondents are not aware of recommended daily salt intake level of and relationship between salt and sodium. However, most of them could identify types of food with high salt content and common diseases related to high salt intake; hypertension, stroke, renal disease, but couldn't associate with diseases like diabetes, osteoporosis, asthma etc.

There are many ways suggested to break the COVID-19 pandemic infection chain. Ministry of Health ... more There are many ways suggested to break the COVID-19 pandemic infection chain. Ministry of Health Malaysia (MOH) stressed to the public the importance to adhere and practice 3W by Washing their hands frequently with water and soap, Wearing face masks especially in public places and if symptomatic and Warn self and others by avoiding handshakes, practice the ethics of coughing and sneezing and get immediate treatment if develop symptoms related to COVID-19 (KKM, 2020). Vaccine for COVID-19 is still unavailable and under development, thus adhering the MOH SOP and embracing the 3W (Wash, Wear, Warn) are essential to break the COVID-19 transmission in the community.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2021

Information relayed to the public is highly important especially during an outbreak situation. Co... more Information relayed to the public is highly important especially during an outbreak situation. Concern about the COVID-19 pandemic is driving an increase in media consumption. In between the start of the outbreak and to date, various media played their roles in information dissemination.