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Introduction: The Internet is rapidly growing and becoming an easier to access to technology. It functions as important part of almost everyone’s daily life including elderly. Objective: The study was aimed to investigate the patterns of internet usage among elderly. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in 23 Elderly Activity Centre throughout Malaysia from August 2017 to October 2017. This centre is a place for senior citizens to conduct routinely/daily activities in the community. It is an oriented service especially for senior citizens. Results: A total of 1400 individuals were sampled in this study, unfortunately the elderly turned up only 799 (57.1%) which aged 60 and above. A self-administered with minimal guidance and face to face interview by trained research assistants were used in this study. The study showed of the total 799 respondents, only 258 (33.0%) who use the internet. Those using the Internet are 89 (30.2%) male and 169 (69.8%) female, respectively. Most of them are government retirees (47.7%). The study found that the reasons of the elderly seeking health information through the internet because it was free (66.3%) as well as easy and fast (56.2%). The study also found that the type of health information sought is information on certain diseases such as cancer, diabetes, hypertension and others (20.9%). With regards to the places of internet access, about 86.8% of the respondents having the internet access at home, followed by internet service provider 42.6% and by Elderly Activity Centre, itself 14.7%. Only 3.5% and 5.8% of respondents access internet at Cyber Cafe and friend’s house respectively. The highest showed that respondents access internet several times in a month 25.5% followed by everyday 22.5% and twice or thrice in a week 17.4%. Overall, 53.5% of elderly claimed internet can be a very helpful resource for finding health information. Discussion: Elderly in Malaysia are becoming more tech-savvy. This change is advantage as it can be used to address and manage health issues and geriatrics care for elderly through strategic dissemination of health information as well as to motivate positive health behaviour through use of technology. KEYWORDS: Elderly, Internet Use, Health Information Seeking.

The prevalence of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) use has been increased and became a global concern. This cross-sectional study among adults in Malaysia determined the knowledge of e-cigarettes, the association between the factors of initiating e-cigarettes use and usage status, the predicting factors of initiating e-cigarettes use and the reasons for the users to stop using it. A total of 1254 respondents completed a self-constructed questionnaire on socio-demographics, knowledge, reasons for e-cigarettes initiation and cessation. Results showed that the majority of them (73.6%) were aware of e-cigarette's existence, while 13.2% were e-cigarettes users. A significant association was found between curiosity to try and usage status in which former user has a higher curiosity to try (55.7%) than the currents users (p=0.004). A variety of flavours has a significant association between usage status as current users (58.8%) used e-cigarettes due to a variety of flavours than the former users (38.6%) (p=0.044). The findings showed that curiosity to try and e-cigarettes are safer are the predictors of initiating e-cigarettes. The respondents who believe that e-cigarettes are safer than tobacco cigarettes have 6.12 times chance to initiate using e-cigarette when considering other factors (OR=6.12, p=0.018). Meanwhile, those who used e-cigarettes because of the curiosity to try had 0.32 times the chance to initiate e-cigarettes use (OR=0.32, p=0.018). This study observed a low knowledge related to e-cigarettes and the significant predicting factor of initiating were a curiosity to try and e-cigarettes is safer. This study reported the main reason smokers quit using e-cigarettes was it did not give satisfaction compared to conventional cigarettes, while for non-smoker was due to worry about the danger of e-cigarettes. Therefore, appropriate information on e-cigarettes should be adequately disseminated to the general population to promote healthy behaviours and positive attitudes toward smoking.

Introduction Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) are new smoking devices that have gained popularity recently. However, there is limited evidence on e-cigarette consumption in Malaysia. This study aims to determine the prevalence, risk factors and perception associated with e-cigarette use among those attending government hospitals and health clinics in Malaysia. Methods A cross-sectional hospital-based study was conducted in seven public hospitals and health clinics in Malaysia, which were selected through a twostage cluster sampling. A validated questionnaire was used to obtain data from the selected participants. Multivariable logistic regression was employed to determine the association between sociodemographics and perceptions of e-cigarette use. Results Almost three-quarters (73.6%; n=923/1254) of participants were aware of e-cigarettes and 13.2% (n=122/923) reported having ever used e-cigarettes. The prevalence was significantly higher among males (18.1%), smokers (21.4%), and younger age group 18–34 years (30.2%). Ever users showed favourable perceptions towards e-cigarettes compared to non-users (23.3% vs 30.14%, p

This research is aimed to examine the attitude of health-care workers toward suicidal patients in Malaysian hospitals, comparing responses from psychiatric and non-psychiatric workers, and to identify specific needs in suicide prevention and management training. This is a multi-site cross-sectional study. The authors conducted a survey based on a translated self-administered questionnaire to participants from seven core hospital departments. While most health-care workers regardless of department and specialty took their duty to prevent suicide seriously, a large majority of them expressed negative attitudes such as finding suicidal behavior irritating, and more than half believed suicidal attempts were a way of making others sorry. However, psychiatric workers were less likely to have judgmental attitudes that included believing suicide attempters as being selfish or trying to get sympathy from others. As there were more similarities than differences in health-care workers’ attitudes toward suicide, recommendations on basic and continuous suicide prevention and management training among hospital workers were made. The interventions focused on improving knowledge, affective, and skill-based areas that were aimed to correct the wrongful understanding of and to minimize the negative attitudes toward suicidal individuals indicated by the study results.