Pusat Pengajian Sains Kesihatan - Tesis

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    The effects of 12-week baduanjin intervention on balance, isometric knee strength, gait biomechanics and risks of falls among elderly
    (2025-04)
    Shihao, Xie
    Physical function declines in older adults as they age, and failure to detect incorrect body postures or restore balance increases the likelihood of falls. Therefore, improving the balance function of the elderly has become an important goal in geriatric rehabilitation. Baduanjin is one of the traditional Chinese qigong treatment methods. Compared with other forms of exercise, it focuses more on the integration of body and mind, and improves the physical function of the elderly and various clinical populations. However, previous studies on Baduanjin have only used subjective scales that indirectly assess fall risk. The effects of Baduanjin on gait biomechanics and balance in older adults is unknown. Therefore, this study evaluated the impact of 12 weeks of Baduanjin on the risk of falls from all aspects, including balance, isometric knee joint strength, and gait parameters. After screening, the 42 participants were divided into groups by drawing lots through the blind box with two kinds of paper strips: B and C. They were randomly divided into one of the following conditions: 1. Baduanjin group (n=22), 2. control group (n=20). The intervention period was 12 weeks, with balance, isometric knee joint strength, and gait tests conducted in the first, sixth, and twelfth weeks, respectively. Also, after the intervention, the biomechanical parameters of eight sections of the Baduanjin were evaluated. Based on the research results, we conclude that compared to walking intervention of the same intensity, the Baduanjin intervention can effectively improve the sway path (37.62±9.73% vs 10.12±0.66%, p<0.05), sway velocity (19.06±10.73% vs 0.96±1.40%, p<0.05), sway area (31.54±11.73% vs 24.95±5.47%, p<0.05) and sway amplitude (29.16±12.44% vs 5.63±1.69%, p<0.05) during balance test in the coronal plane of the elderly. In addition, Baduanjin intervention can improve the gait symmetry during early (50.00±67.08% vs 20.00±84.85%, p<0.05) and mid stance phases (55.56±46.64% vs 11.11±82.22%, p<0.05) and maximum strength of knee extensor (7.77±1.69% vs 3.39±1.44%, p<0.05). In conclusion, compared to conventional walking intervention, the Baduanjin intervention is more conducive in improving the balance and gait stability of elderly, possibly due to the increase in lower limb muscle strength.
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    Investigating the effect of brain break exercise videos on mental stress, personality, mental hardiness, social support and physical activity among college students in Jiangxi province, China
    (2025-03)
    Mingzhu, Pan
    College students, as a distinct cohort, are navigating the transition between campus and social life, facing pressures such as interpersonal dynamics, academic demands, financial constraints, employment expectations, and daily stress. Managing psychological well-being in universities is a pressing concern. Engaging in physical activity, such as Brain Breaks exercise videos, has been shown to have a positive impact on mental health by reducing stress levels. This study primarily aims to validate the uBioMacpa Pro stress measurement tool among Chinese college students. Studies indicated that individual characteristics like personality traits, hardiness, social support, and physical activity profoundly influence mental stress levels. Thus, the subsequent objectives were to explore the relationships between these factors and mental stress, and to evaluate the effect of Brain-breaks exercise video intervention on the study variables among Chinese college students in Shangrao City, Jiangxi Province. The study was conducted in two phases, Phase 1 involved reliability and validity tests of the uBioMacpa Pro and a cross-sectional study, with 60 students involved in the reliability test, 200 in the validity test, and 890 in the cross-sectional study. Additionally, 80 students with mental stress from Phase 1 participated in Phase 2, which was a randomized controlled trial. In phase 2, 80 students were randomly College students, as a distinct cohort, are navigating the transition between campus and social life, facing pressures such as interpersonal dynamics, academic demands, financial constraints, employment expectations, and daily stress. Managing psychological well-being in universities is a pressing concern. Engaging in physical activity, such as Brain Breaks exercise videos, has been shown to have a positive impact on mental health by reducing stress levels. This study primarily aims to validate the uBioMacpa Pro stress measurement tool among Chinese college students. Studies indicated that individual characteristics like personality traits, hardiness, social support, and physical activity profoundly influence mental stress levels. Thus, the subsequent objectives were to explore the relationships between these factors and mental stress, and to evaluate the effect of Brain-breaks exercise video intervention on the study variables among Chinese college students in Shangrao City, Jiangxi Province. The study was conducted in two phases, Phase 1 involved reliability and validity tests of the uBioMacpa Pro and a cross-sectional study, with 60 students involved in the reliability test, 200 in the validity test, and 890 in the cross-sectional study. Additionally, 80 students with mental stress from Phase 1 participated in Phase 2, which was a randomized controlled trial. In phase 2, 80 students were randomly
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    Effectiveness of cosmos caudatus extract in improving sarcopenia indices and dietary intake among community-dwelling older adults with possible sarcopenia and sarcopenia in Kelantan
    (2025-03)
    Salleh, Nur Syakirah Arissa Mohd
    Genetic variations in blood group, human platelet antigen (HPA), human neutrophil antigen (HNA), cytokine, hemochromatosis (HFE) and human leukocyte antigen (HLA) are uniquely distributed across human population groups. Several of these are important markers for tissue compatibility and diseases susceptibility. Thus, the present study was conducted with the aim of assessing blood group antigens, HPA, HNA, cytokine and HLA-G polymorphisms in Malays, Chinese and Indians in Peninsular Malaysia (PM) and use as population datasets reference for ancestry and health assessments. Several blood group (e.g., ABO type O, DCCee, MNS and Fya+b-), HPA (e.g., HPA-1a/a, -3a/b and -4a/a), HNA (e.g., HNA-1a/a, - 3a/b and -4a/a) and HFE (e.g., H63D-S65C-C282Y) were generally found to be the most common in Malays, Chinese and Indians. However, clear differences on genotype frequency distributions between Malays, Chinese and Indians were recorded for other minor blood groups systems (e.g., Kidd and Dombrock), cytokine single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (e.g., IL-1Rpst11970C/T) and HLA-G alleles (e.g., G*01:01:01:01/01:01:01:01 and G*01:01:03:01/01:01:01:01). Homogeneity tests showed several significant differences between Malays, Chinese, Indians and datasets for other Malaysian populations that were reported earlier. Distinctions between ancestrally unrelated population groups in Malaysia can also be seen in the principal component/coordinate analyses plots and neighbor-joining trees. These observations are associated with their different origins and population histories. The population genetic datasets collected from the present and earlier studies not only enrich the contemporary view of genetic diversity in PM, but also offer significant potential benefits for health practitioners, researchers and policy makers. In PM, alloimmunization risks due to transfusion and gestation incompatibility are potentially associated with ABO, MNS, Kidd, Rhesus, Kell, Duffy, HPA-3, HPA-15, HNA-1, HNA-3 and HNA-15 antigens. Therefore, HPA, HNA and together with extended blood group typing (i.e., beyond the regular screening of ABO and RhD) typing could be implemented to reduce potential risks of transfusion and gestation alloimmunization in PM. Several cytokine gene SNPs have been identified as risk factors for disease susceptibility and were observed to distribute differently between population groups in PM. These include for IL1RA mspa1 11100C/T and IL-1R pst1 1970T/C which could contribute to different disease incidence between population groups. However, other pathogenic variants within HFE (e.g., C282Y) and HLA-G (G*01:01:01:01, 01:05N and G*01:06) were not detected either in Malays, Chinese and Indians. In conclusion, this study provides extensive and comprehensive population datasets for the Malays, Chinese and Indians. These findings contribute to a better understanding of genetic diversity and health risk profiles in PM as well as offering value data for future ancestral and disease analyses.
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    Genetic diversity of blood group antigen, HNA, HPA, HFE, cytokine and HLA-G variants among Malays, Chinese and Indians in peninsular Malaysia
    (2025-03)
    Ghazali, Norul Hajar Che
    Genetic variations in blood group, human platelet antigen (HPA), human neutrophil antigen (HNA), cytokine, hemochromatosis (HFE) and human leukocyte antigen (HLA) are uniquely distributed across human population groups. Several of these are important markers for tissue compatibility and diseases susceptibility. Thus, the present study was conducted with the aim of assessing blood group antigens, HPA, HNA, cytokine and HLA-G polymorphisms in Malays, Chinese and Indians in Peninsular Malaysia (PM) and use as population datasets reference for ancestry and health assessments. Several blood group (e.g., ABO type O, DCCee, MNS and Fya+b-), HPA (e.g., HPA-1a/a, -3a/b and -4a/a), HNA (e.g., HNA-1a/a, - 3a/b and -4a/a) and HFE (e.g., H63D-S65C-C282Y) were generally found to be the most common in Malays, Chinese and Indians. However, clear differences on genotype frequency distributions between Malays, Chinese and Indians were recorded for other minor blood groups systems (e.g., Kidd and Dombrock), cytokine single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (e.g., IL-1Rpst11970C/T) and HLA-G alleles (e.g., G*01:01:01:01/01:01:01:01 and G*01:01:03:01/01:01:01:01). Homogeneity tests showed several significant differences between Malays, Chinese, Indians and datasets for other Malaysian populations that were reported earlier. Distinctions between ancestrally unrelated population groups in Malaysia can also be seen in the principal component/coordinate analyses plots and neighbor-joining trees. These observations are associated with their different origins and population histories. The population genetic datasets collected from the present and earlier studies not only enrich the contemporary view of genetic diversity in PM, but also offer significant potential benefits for health practitioners, researchers and policy makers. In PM, alloimmunization risks due to transfusion and gestation incompatibility are potentially associated with ABO, MNS, Kidd, Rhesus, Kell, Duffy, HPA-3, HPA-15, HNA-1, HNA-3 and HNA-15 antigens. Therefore, HPA, HNA and together with extended blood group typing (i.e., beyond the regular screening of ABO and RhD) typing could be implemented to reduce potential risks of transfusion and gestation alloimmunization in PM. Several cytokine gene SNPs have been identified as risk factors for disease susceptibility and were observed to distribute differently between population groups in PM. These include for IL1RA mspa1 11100C/T and IL-1R pst1 1970T/C which could contribute to different disease incidence between population groups. However, other pathogenic variants within HFE (e.g., C282Y) and HLA-G (G*01:01:01:01, 01:05N and G*01:06) were not detected either in Malays, Chinese and Indians. In conclusion, this study provides extensive and comprehensive population datasets for the Malays, Chinese and Indians. These findings contribute to a better understanding of genetic diversity and health risk profiles in PM as well as offering value data for future ancestral and disease analyses.
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    An investigation of physical activity level, sedentary time and bone mineral density in relation to sclerostin level in postmenopausal women with type 2 diabetes mellitus
    (2025-04)
    Othman, Mazra
    People with type 2 diabetes (T2D) have been associated with an increased risk of fractures at any skeletal site due to the poorer quality of the bone, despite having greater bone mineral density when compared to osteoporotic and normal non-T2D people. Studies showed that postmenopausal women with fragility fractures have high sclerostin levels compared to those without fractures, while physical activities (PA) were inversely related to sclerostin levels. In this study, different levels of PA (sedentary, moderate, vigorous PA and MVPA) levels were objectively measured to assess their influence on sclerostin levels in T2D postmenopausal women. This cross-sectional study involved 71 postmenopausal T2D women, aged 59.5±4.1 years from the Diabetic Clinic, Hospital Pakar Universiti Sains Malaysia. Health history of postmenopausal and T2D duration, also other chronic diseases were obtained, followed by calcium intake (mg/day) using a validated food frequency questionnaire. Anthropometry measurements were recorded and fasting blood glucose (mmol/L), HbA1c (%) and sclerostin (pmol/L) were obtained via blood assay. Using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA), bone mineral density (BMD, kg/cm2), T-score (SD), body fat (%), total lean mass (%), and appendicular lean mass index (ALMI, kg/m2) were derived. Participants wore an accelerometer for a week during waking hours where those with a minimum of 10-h wear/day and for a minimum of four days of valid data were analysed. Accelerometer data were analysed using the GGIR package for R-software. Using SPSS version 27, descriptive output, correlation and multivariable regression analyses and outcomes were obtained. Overall, eight women (11%) were newly identified as having osteoporosis with average T-scores -3.3±0.6 SD. From our correlation analysis, duration of T2D, years (r = 0.50), ALMI, kg/m2 (r = 0.14) and average MVPA, min/day (r = -0.4) were significantly related to sclerostin levels (p<0.05). Sedentary (339.3±83.6 min/day), light (205.2±37.1 min/day), moderate (32.0±17.2 min/day) and vigorous PA (0.4±0.9min/day) were not correlated to sclerostin levels. The multivariable regression model predicted as much as 33% (F = 5.63, p<0.003) of sclerostin outcomes are influenced by the duration of T2D diagnosed (β= 1.070, p=0.009) and MVPA (β = -0.292, p = 0.056) while controlling for appendicular ALMI, kg/m2 (β= -0.010, p= 0.990). In conclusion, the duration of diagnosed T2D influenced the sclerostin levels, which may impair bone formation while accounting for appendicular muscle. More in-depth investigations are needed to understand these results of possible MVPA influence on sclerostin in T2D postmenopausal women.