Development of an online animated sexting prevention module based on the prototype willingness model to reduce intention and willingness to sexting among diploma students

INTRODUCTION

Sexting refers to the act of sending and receiving sexually explicit content in the form of in the form of texts, photos, or videos via the Internet and mobile phones. This behaviour is associated with many negative health consequences among young people. However, there is a lack of intervention studies to curb this behaviour. We have developed a new sexting prevention module and tested it using a randomised controlled field trial. This paper reported the phase one of the study i.e., the development of an animated sexting prevention module using the prototype willingness model (PWM) to reduce the intention and willingness to sext amongst diploma students in Malaysia.

MATERIALS AND METHOD

The initial phase involved a review of previous interventions, validation from field experts, and the process of developing video. Then the module pilot was tested among 30 diploma students from a public university. They were given access to the newly developed videos posted on a private YouTube channel and asked to evaluate the videos quantitatively and qualitatively by using the acceptability of the intervention module (AIM), intervention appropriateness measure (IAM) and feasibility of the intervention measure (FIM). The minimum and maximum scores of each measure were 12 and 24 respectively whereby a higher score indicated greater acceptability, appropriateness and feasibility.

RESULTS

The intervention consisted of five sections addressing the constructs of PWM, namely attitude, perceived norm, prototype perception, as well as intention and willingness of sexting. The contents were then converted into five videos with a total duration of 23 minutes. Based on the pilot test, the scores of AIM, IAM and FIM were not normally distributed and their median and the interquartile range values were 20 (4), 21 (4) and 22 (4) respectively. Most of the respondents gave favourable opinions on the intervention besides providing some input for improvement.

CONCLUSION

This animated sexting intervention module based on PWM to reduce the intention and willingness was novel. The module was acceptable, appropriate and feasible to be implemented among undergraduate students. Further evaluation of this intervention module can be performed to provide more comprehensive evidence of its effectiveness.

A cluster randomised controlled trial on effectiveness of health education-based intervention to improve parental practice in preventing unintentional childhood injury among parents attending health clinics: A study protocol

INTRODUCTION

Unintentional childhood injuries is one of the public health challenges among developing countries. The injuries often cause mortality and have significant burden of morbidity in Malaysia, and this can be prevented. Parents play important role in practicing preventive measures to reduce likelihood of unintentional injuries among their children. The objective of the study is to develop, implement, and evaluate the effects of health education intervention on parental practices to reduce unintentional childhood injuries among parents of young children.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Health education module focusing on preventing childhood unintentional injuries was developed based on information-motivation-behavioural skills (IMB) theory. This intervention was implemented among parents of children under seven years attending government health clinics in Putrajaya. The effectiveness of the intervention was assessed using single-blinded, randomised controlled trial. Parents were excluded if their children have any chronic disease or disabilities or are currently participating in any other community trials. All four health clinics in Putrajaya with eight personalised care zones/groups were included in the study and randomly assigned to either intervention or control groups after the recruitment of eligible parents is completed. The intervention was delivered by the researcher, and data consisting of validated self-administered parental questionnaires were collected at the baseline, one-month post-intervention and three-month post-intervention to assess the effects of the intervention. Data were analysed using Generalised Linear Mixed Model (GLMM) adjusting for covariates.

RESULTS

The study is anticipated to be able to discover factors associated with injury preventive practice among the parents of children attending selected government child health clinics in Putrajaya and determine the effect of the health education intervention on the parental injury preventive practice.

CONCLUSION

The implementation of the intervention to the parents is expected to improve the parents' knowledge, motivation and practice to prevent unintentional childhood injuries. The health education module developed in this study can be taught to the health staff to standardize their knowledge and transfer of information to the parents during visit. The intervention module can be used to complement existing health education activities in the government health clinics.

Seroepidemiology of toxoplasmosis among HIV-infected patients and healthy blood donors

A cross-sectional study was carried out in University of Malaya Medical Centre, Kuala Lumpur. Blood samples from 100 HIV-infected patients and 203 Healthy Blood Donors (HBD) were collected and anti-Toxoplasma antibodies were detected by using conventional ELISA. The seroprevalence of toxoplasmosis in HIV/AIDS and Healthy Blood Donors were found to be 21% and 28.1% respectively. There was no significant association between the seroprevalence of toxoplasmosis and various possible risk factors i.e. contact with cat, consumption of undercooked meat and history of blood transfusion in both groups. No significant differences between Toxoplasma seroprevalence in HIV/AIDS and Healthy Blood Donors in association with presence of single or multiple risk factors were found. The mean CD4 count among HIV/AIDS patients in this study was 202.23 cell/cumm. There was no significant association between CD4 count and seropositivity for Toxoplasma antibodies in HIV/AIDS patients.