Prognostic Factors Associated with Breast Cancer-Specific Survival from 1995 to 2022: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of 1,386,663 Cases from 30 Countries.

Breast cancer is the fifth-ranked cancer globally. Despite early diagnosis and advances in treatment, breast cancer mortality is increasing. This meta-analysis aims to examine all possible prognostic factors that improve/deteriorate breast cancer-specific survival. MEDLINE, PubMed, ScienceDirect, Ovid, and Google Scholar were systematically searched until September 16, 2023. The retrieved studies from 1995 to 2022 accumulated 1,386,663 cases from 30 countries. A total of 13 out of 22 prognostic factors were significantly associated with breast cancer-specific survival. A random-effects model provided a pooled estimate of the top five poorest prognostic factors, including Stage 4 (HR = 12.12; 95% CI: 5.70, 25.76), followed by Stage 3 (HR = 3.42, 95% CI: 2.51, 4.67), a comorbidity index ≥ 3 (HR = 3.29; 95% CI: 4.52, 7.35), the poor differentiation of cancer cell histology (HR = 2.43; 95% CI: 1.79, 3.30), and undifferentiated cancer cell histology (HR = 2.24; 95% CI: 1.66, 3.01). Other survival-reducing factors include positive nodes, age, race, HER2-receptor positivity, and overweight/obesity. The top five best prognostic factors include different types of mastectomies and breast-conserving therapies (HR = 0.56; 95% CI: 0.44, 0.70), medullary histology (HR = 0.62; 95% CI: 0.53, 0.72), higher education (HR = 0.72; 95% CI: 0.68, 0.77), and a positive estrogen receptor status (HR = 0.78; 95% CI: 0.65, 0.94). Heterogeneity was observed in most studies. Data from developing countries are still scarce.

COVID-19 home remedy consumption and perceived effectiveness among adult population in Brunei Darussalam: a PLS-SEM approach.

BACKGROUND: The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by SARS-CoV-2 affects the respiratory system and causes severe acute respiratory infections. Several cultures have influenced the use of home remedies to ease mild symptoms of COVID-19 sometimes alongside conventional medicine. The aim of this study was to investigate the usage of COVID-19 home remedies among the adult population in Brunei. METHODS: The study design was a cross-sectional study using an online survey and distributed nationwide. The statistical analysis of the data included descriptive statistics describing the sociodemographic characteristics of the respondents, their experience with COVID-19 infection, consumption of general home remedies and COVID-19 home remedy, their practice of COVID-19 home remedy use, and their attitude towards the general use of home remedy. Sub-group analysis including Pearson's chi-square test and Fisher's exact test was computed for the variables in relation to the COVID-19 home remedy use and the perceived effectiveness of the types of home remedy. Multivariate analysis including Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was applied to determine the correlations between the factors and outcomes measured. P-value less than 0.05 is considered statistically significant. RESULTS: There was a total of 864 eligible responses included in the study. The primary findings showed COVID-19 home remedy was used by 72.2% of the study participants. Most frequently used types of COVID-19 home remedy were cloves (37%), lemon (37%), and honey (23%). There was an infrequent usage of coconut (4.6%), eucalyptus oil (3.7%), habbatussauda (3.5%), traditional/ herbal cough syrup (2.4%), and turmeric (2.2%). The PLS-SEM demonstrated that 'Experience' appears to be a central endogenous variable that affects the decision on the use of COVID-19 home remedy. This relationship is mediated by 'Safety', 'Source', and 'Opinion' which have significant contributions to the outcome, accounting for 98.2% of the variance explained (R-square = 0.982). CONCLUSIONS: The outcome of this study establishes the baseline prevalence of COVID-19 home remedy consumption among Bruneian residents and compared the previous study on Brunei's general use of traditional medicine. The present findings could help nurses and other healthcare professionals in Brunei understand the practice of Bruneian adults on the consumption of home remedies for COVID-19.

Mental Wellbeing and Health-Risk Behaviours of University Students in Brunei: A Cross-Sectional Study during COVID-19 Pandemic.

Background: The coronavirus disease discovered in 2019 (COVID-19) has impacted the health behaviour of university students in a range of western nations and had a number of detrimental effects on their mental wellbeing. However, little is known about the impact on university students in Southeast Asia, particularly in Brunei. This study aims to estimate the prevalence and factors related to poor mental wellbeing and engaging in health-risk behaviors among university students in Brunei during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A cross-sectional online survey of students in all public universities was conducted from March to June 2021. Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale, Global Physical Activity Questionnaire, and WHO STEPs questionnaires were used to measure mental wellbeing, physical activity, and health behaviors, respectively. Logistic regressions were applied. Results: A total of 1020 university students participated in this study (57% response rate). Prevalence of poor mental wellbeing and physical inactivity were 30% and 42.8%, respectively. Excessive snacking (89.7%), sugar intake (81.7%), and salt intake (53.8%) were the most prevalent health-risk behaviors. Body mass index and participating in sports activities were the most common factors related to mental wellbeing and health-risk behaviors. Conclusions: Participating in certain sports activities appears to have protective effects against study outcomes. However, a high prevalence of physical inactivity and unhealthy diet among university students is a concern, as it could be indicative of future non-communicable disease trends.

Knowledge, attitudes, and practices of healthcare professionals on oral care of pregnant women in Brunei Darussalam.

OBJECTIVE: To examine nationwide the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of healthcare professionals on oral/dental care of pregnant women in Brunei Darussalam. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A descriptive cross-sectional study conducted using an online survey of eligible healthcare professionals in all Government Maternal and Child Health Care Clinics, Dental Clinics and Obstetrics and Gynecological Clinics in four hospitals covering the whole of Brunei Darussalam. Participants were given seven days to complete the survey. Sub-group analysis using Chi-square test for independence and one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to determine the significant association between domains of oral care practices and demographic factors. P values less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: A total of 346 healthcare professionals participated in this online study. Most participants (94.3%) responded that they perceived oral health to be of high importance. However, less than two thirds of the participants (59.0%) included oral health questions during antenatal health assessments. Moreover, only 16.2% of participants frequently discussed the importance of oral care with their antenatal patients. CONCLUSIONS: In this survey, most healthcare professionals viewed oral health to be of high importance for prenatal/antenatal patients. However, not all put those views into practice with regard to oral care in pregnant women.

Survival of cervical cancer patients in Brunei Darussalam: 2002-2017.

Objective: Cervical cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer deaths among Bruneian women. This study aims to investigate the survival rate of cervical cancer patients in Brunei Darussalam between 2002 and 2017, to compare survival of cervical cancer patients between two periods: 2002-2009 and 2010-2017 and to identify prognostic factors of cervical cancer. Methods: A retrospective cohort study on cervical cancer patients registered in Brunei Darussalam Cancer Registry between 2002 and 2017. De-identified data from the registry was extracted and survival analysis was performed using Kaplan-Meier estimator, log-rank test and multiple Cox regression analysis. Results: The 1-, 3- and 5-year survival rates of cervical cancer patients in Brunei Darussalam were 87.3%, 77.4% and 72.5% respectively from 2002 to 2017. The 5-year survival rate for 2002-2009 and 2010-2017 were 77.3% and 69.1% respectively. The risk of mortality was significantly higher in 2010-2017 compared to 2002-2009 after adjusting for variables (Adjusted HR = 1.59; 95% CI: 1.08, 2.40; p = 0.019). Patients with distant cancer (Adjusted HR = 11.21; 95% CI: 6.18, 20.30; p < 0.001) had the highest risk of mortality. Conclusion: The 5-year survival rate of cervical cancer patients in Brunei Darussalam was 72.5%, which ranks relatively high globally. However, increased mortality among elderly patients, and patients diagnosed with cervical cancers at the later stages, calls for public health efforts to raise awareness, early detection, and disease management.

Machine Learning-Based Prediction of Mental Well-Being Using Health Behavior Data from University Students.

BACKGROUND: Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, the importance of timely and effective assessment of mental well-being has increased dramatically. Machine learning (ML) algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI) techniques can be harnessed for early detection, prognostication and prediction of negative psychological well-being states. METHODS: We used data from a large, multi-site cross-sectional survey consisting of 17 universities in Southeast Asia. This research work models mental well-being and reports on the performance of various machine learning algorithms, including generalized linear models, k-nearest neighbor, naïve Bayes, neural networks, random forest, recursive partitioning, bagging, and boosting. RESULTS: Random Forest and adaptive boosting algorithms achieved the highest accuracy for identifying negative mental well-being traits. The top five most salient features associated with predicting poor mental well-being include the number of sports activities per week, body mass index, grade point average (GPA), sedentary hours, and age. CONCLUSIONS: Based on the reported results, several specific recommendations and suggested future work are discussed. These findings may be useful to provide cost-effective support and modernize mental well-being assessment and monitoring at the individual and university level.

Multimodal Stereotactic Brain Tumor Segmentation Using 3D-Znet.

Stereotactic brain tumor segmentation based on 3D neuroimaging data is a challenging task due to the complexity of the brain architecture, extreme heterogeneity of tumor malformations, and the extreme variability of intensity signal and noise distributions. Early tumor diagnosis can help medical professionals to select optimal medical treatment plans that can potentially save lives. Artificial intelligence (AI) has previously been used for automated tumor diagnostics and segmentation models. However, the model development, validation, and reproducibility processes are challenging. Often, cumulative efforts are required to produce a fully automated and reliable computer-aided diagnostic system for tumor segmentation. This study proposes an enhanced deep neural network approach, the 3D-Znet model, based on the variational autoencoder-autodecoder Znet method, for segmenting 3D MR (magnetic resonance) volumes. The 3D-Znet artificial neural network architecture relies on fully dense connections to enable the reuse of features on multiple levels to improve model performance. It consists of four encoders and four decoders along with the initial input and the final output blocks. Encoder-decoder blocks in the network include double convolutional 3D layers, 3D batch normalization, and an activation function. These are followed by size normalization between inputs and outputs and network concatenation across the encoding and decoding branches. The proposed deep convolutional neural network model was trained and validated using a multimodal stereotactic neuroimaging dataset (BraTS2020) that includes multimodal tumor masks. Evaluation of the pretrained model resulted in the following dice coefficient scores: Whole Tumor (WT) = 0.91, Tumor Core (TC) = 0.85, and Enhanced Tumor (ET) = 0.86. The performance of the proposed 3D-Znet method is comparable to other state-of-the-art methods. Our protocol demonstrates the importance of data augmentation to avoid overfitting and enhance model performance.

Machine learning-based colorectal cancer prediction using global dietary data.

BACKGROUND: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer worldwide. Active health screening for CRC yielded detection of an increasingly younger adults. However, current machine learning algorithms that are trained using older adults and smaller datasets, may not perform well in practice for large populations. AIM: To evaluate machine learning algorithms using large datasets accounting for both younger and older adults from multiple regions and diverse sociodemographics. METHODS: A large dataset including 109,343 participants in a dietary-based colorectal cancer ase study from Canada, India, Italy, South Korea, Mexico, Sweden, and the United States was collected by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. This global dietary database was augmented with other publicly accessible information from multiple sources. Nine supervised and unsupervised machine learning algorithms were evaluated on the aggregated dataset. RESULTS: Both supervised and unsupervised models performed well in predicting CRC and non-CRC phenotypes. A prediction model based on an artificial neural network (ANN) was found to be the optimal algorithm with CRC misclassification of 1% and non-CRC misclassification of 3%. CONCLUSIONS: ANN models trained on large heterogeneous datasets may be applicable for both younger and older adults. Such models provide a solid foundation for building effective clinical decision support systems assisting healthcare providers in dietary-related, non-invasive screening that can be applied in large studies. Using optimal algorithms coupled with high compliance to cancer screening is expected to significantly improve early diagnoses and boost the success rate of timely and appropriate cancer interventions.

Prevalence of mesiobuccal-2 canals in maxillary first and second molars among the Bruneian population-CBCT analysis.

INTRODUCTION: Identification of the second mesiobuccal canal (MB-2) in maxillary molars is considered an endodontic concern of many practitioners due to its complex morphology. The use of Cone-beam Computed Tomography (CBCT) is a necessity for easier location of this elusive canal during endodontic treatment. AIM: To study the prevalence of the MB-2 canal in the maxillary first and second molars amongst the Bruneian population. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective study involving a review of scans taken from a CBCT scanner (J Morita; Veraviewepocs 3D R100 Panoramic/Cephalometric) over a 5-year period, from May 2016 to May 2021 was carried out. A total of 342 maxillary molars were evaluated independently by two observers. Any contradicting outcomes were discussed by both observers until a consensus was reached. In addition, the correlation of MB-2 canals with gender and age were calculated using the chi-squared test. RESULTS: The prevalence of MB-2 canal in the maxillary first and second molars are 51.3% and 29.8% respectively. Both males and females have a similar prevalence of MB-2 canals in the maxillary first and second molars. The incidence of MB-2 canals in both maxillary first and second molars significantly decreases with increasing age. No significant correlation between the prevalence of MB-2 canals with different gender groups in the population. CONCLUSIONS: It is crucial for clinicians to identify the presence of MB-2 canals when performing endodontic treatment of the maxillary first and second molars. Varying prevalence has been reported for different populations. Recognising this wide-ranging prevalence amongst different populations will allow for greater predictability in ensuring endodontic treatment success.

The clusters of health-risk behaviours and mental wellbeing and their sociodemographic correlates: a study of 15,366 ASEAN university students.

BACKGROUND: This study investigated, through cluster analysis, the associations between behavioural characteristics, mental wellbeing, demographic characteristics, and health among university students in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) University Network - Health Promotion Network (AUN-HPN) member universities. METHODS: Data were retrieved from a cross-sectional self-administered online survey among undergraduate students in seven ASEAN countries. A two-step cluster analysis was employed, with cluster labels based on the predominant characteristics identified within the clusters. The 'healthy' cluster was assigned as the reference group for comparisons using multinomial logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: The analytic sample size comprised 15,366 university students. Five clusters of student-types were identified: (i) 'Healthy' (n = 1957; 12.7%); (ii) 'High sugary beverage consumption' (n = 8482; 55.2%); (iii) 'Poor mental wellbeing' (n = 2009; 13.1%); (iv) 'Smoker' (n = 1364; 8.9%); and (v) 'Alcohol drinker' (n = 1554; 10.1%). Being female (OR 1.28, 95%CI 1.14, 1.45) and being physically inactive (OR 1.20, 95%CI 1.04, 1.39) increased the odds of belonging to the 'High sugary beverage consumption' cluster. Being female (OR 1.21, 95%CI 1.04, 1.41), non-membership in a sports club (OR 1.83, 95%CI 1.43, 2.34) were associated with 'Poor mental wellbeing'. Obesity (OR 2.03, 95%CI 1.47, 2.80), inactively commuting to campus (OR 1.34, 95%CI 1.09, 1.66), and living in high-rise accommodation (OR 2.94, 95%CI 1.07, 8.07) were associated with membership in the 'Smoker' cluster. Students living in The Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam had a higher likelihood of being alcohol drinkers, compared with those who lived in Brunei. CONCLUSIONS: ASEAN university students exhibited health-risk behaviours that typically clustered around a specific health behaviour and mental wellbeing. The results provided support for focusing interventions on one dominant health-risk behaviour, with associated health-risk behaviours within clusters being potential mediators for consideration.

Managing during the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional study of health care workers' perceived organizational support and its consequences on their compassion, resilience and turnover intention.

AIM: The aim of this study is to evaluate health care professionals' perceived organizational support and its effect on their compassion, resilience and turnover intention in the United Arab Emirates. BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic exerted unprecedented pressure on health care systems, professionals and management systems. Health care organizations begin to explore their roles and function in relation to risks and resilience, in addition to ascertain what level of organization support they are providing to their workers. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted with a questionnaire administered to 538 health care workers, to examine their personal resources and organizational support during the pandemic. RESULTS: A total of 37.7% of nurses were found to have a moderate level of resilience, logistic regression showed that being married is a protective factor against resigning from the profession (OR = 0.462, P = .012, 95% CI: 0.254-0.842), and health care workers who perceived higher organizational support were approximately 50% less likely to have a turnover intention (OR = 0.506, P = .009, 95% CI: 0.303-0.845). Multiple linear regression model indicated significantly higher resilience among physicians (ß = 0.12, P < .05) and allied health care practitioners (ß = 0.12, P = .022). Organizational support had a significant positive relationship with resilience scores (ß = 0.20, P < .001); adequate training was significantly related to higher compassion levels (ß = 0.11, P < .05) and high organizational support scores were associated with increased compassion scores (ß = 0.27, P < .001). CONCLUSIONS: Front-line health care workers reported moderate organizational support during the pandemic, commensurately reflected in moderate levels of personal resilience and self-compassion. Continued and better support is vital for employee sustainability and the increased health system performance, including quality of care and patient outcomes. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: Nurse managers should help health care workers improve self-care strategies by strengthening personal resources, including shortened duty hours, offering adequate break time, providing a safe work climate and purveying adequate personal protective equipment and supplies to combat infections. They should build an empathetic work environment through understanding the needs of staff, helping tackle their work stress and sustaining cultures of compassion through promoting rewarding and flexibility strategies. Moreover, policymakers and nurse mangers should create a rewarding culture for nurses and other health care workers to increase their commitment to their jobs.

Predictors of Satisfaction With Life and Health Status of Older People in Brunei: A Gender Comparative Study.

Objective: To investigate predictors of life satisfaction and healthy aging with focus on gender differences among older people in Brunei Darussalam. Methods: A cross-sectional study on older people recruited by proportionate sampling. Multiple linear regression stratified by gender was applied. Results: 45.6% of life satisfaction of older women were strongly associated with self-perceived health, social relationship, and education level. For older men, 26.3% of the variance of life satisfaction was predicted by physical functioning or disability, and social relationship. For older women, 38.9% of the variance of health status can be explained with satisfaction with life, and difficulty to do daily tasks. For older men, 33.1% of the variance of health status can be accounted by income, number of children, presence of chronic illness, and diabetes. Conclusion: This paper discusses the unique gender differences of older people from a global perspective. Policymakers and stakeholders need to account for local and contextual differences before adopting international guideline. Particularly, on the maintenance or further promotion social interactions, active engaging elderly in health maintenance, and physical and mental functioning of the older population.

Sample size calculation for prevalence studies using Scalex and ScalaR calculators.

BACKGROUND: Although books and articles guiding the methods of sample size calculation for prevalence studies are available, we aim to guide, assist and report sample size calculation using the present calculators. RESULTS: We present and discuss four parameters (namely level of confidence, precision, variability of the data, and anticipated loss) required for sample size calculation for prevalence studies. Choosing correct parameters with proper understanding, and reporting issues are mainly discussed. We demonstrate the use of a purposely-designed calculators that assist users to make proper informed-decision and prepare appropriate report. CONCLUSION: Two calculators can be used with free software (Spreadsheet and RStudio) that benefit researchers with limited resources. It will, hopefully, minimize the errors in parameter selection, calculation, and reporting. The calculators are available at: ( https://sites.google.com/view/sr-ln/ssc ).

Nurses' mental health and coping strategies throughout COVID-19 outbreak: A nationwide qualitative study.

This qualitative exploratory study explored nurses' mental health and coping strategies working with suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patients in Brunei Darussalam. Eleven focus group discussions were conducted between October 2020 and January 2021, involving 75 participants. Three themes emerged: 'COVID-19 roller-coaster transitional journey' explained the different psychological responses of the journey of the nurses from merely hearing about COVID-19 from far to the invasion of the virus and community outbreak in the country; 'Mind my mind and heart' share experiences of the nurses in terms of their mental health and emotional responses; and 'the psychosocial system' described the coping mechanisms of the nurses throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Nurses' mental health and coping strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic influenced how they provided care and performed other tasks, which should not be taken for granted. Nurses employed psychosocial coping methods at the different phases of the COVID-19 pandemic and support from family, friends, the public, and the governmental level. This research is fundamental as a basis for other countries to design psychological interventions during this yet unsettled COVID-19 pandemic.

Competency assessment for community health nurses: a focus group expert panel discussion.

BACKGROUND: General Practice setting in the Primary Health Care Services are the utmost visited by the public. It is important that the nurses' competencies in this area be assessed to ensure provision of safe and quality services. AIM/OBJECTIVE: To explore perceptions and experiences of competencies assessment tool for community health nurses working at the General Practice setting in the Primary Health Care Services. METHODS: An exploratory qualitative study utilizing focus group discussions were conducted on purposive sample of 12 officers with expertise in competency assessment and community health nursing from higher nursing education institutions, the Nursing Training and Development Centre, the Nursing Board and the Community Health Nursing Services in Brunei Darussalam. The existing competencies assessment tool was revised, the participants were divided into two groups of expert panel review team and two focus group discussions were held with each team. The focus group discussions encompassed components and methods of assessment; methods of grading; and overall organization and structure of the revised competency assessment tool. FINDINGS: Four themes emerged: 1) International equivalent core competencies components; 2) Multi-methods approach to assessment; 3) Definitive guidelines as framework for assessment; and 4) Understanding and acceptability of the competency assessment tool. CONCLUSIONS/IMPLICATIONS TO PRACTICE: The expert panel reviews provide practical input that were inculcated in the preliminary developed competencies assessment tool. Identification of eligible assessors were recommended based on standardized criteria, and socialization and training held to set direction and guidance for implementing the utilization of the competencies assessment tool. Further studies are deemed important to critically evaluate and validate the preliminary competencies assessment tool for development of a more robust assessment instrument.

Posttraumatic stress disorders and influencing factors during the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional study of frontline nurses.

AIMS: To assess the extent of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and severity, factors motivating work continuation, and factors influencing PTSD development among frontline nurses caring for patients with COVID-19. BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has an emotional toll on nurses. Exposure to traumatic events associated with the pandemic places frontline nurses at risk for developing PTSD. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. METHODS: Frontline nurses (n = 370) who cared for COVID-19 patients in three governmental hospitals in the United Arab Emirates were recruited from November 2020 to January 2021. The self-reported Posttraumatic Diagnostic Scale (PDS) was used to assess PTSD. The motivational factors for work continuation explored were: work-related factors (e.g., availability of personal protective equipment and management recognition), family support, and obligation to care. We used correlation and multiple regression analyses to investigate factors that influenced PDS score, including sociodemographic characteristics (e.g., gender, age, exercising status, and general health status), work factors (e.g., hospital type [COVID vs non-COVID], prior work experience, and encountering deaths), and factors motivating work continuation. The reporting of this study was consistent with STROBE guidelines. RESULTS: In total, 36.2% participants had a probable PTSD diagnosis (PDS score ≥28) with most reporting unwanted memories. Family support (95.9%) and management recognition (90.8%) were the most frequently reported motivating factors. Factors significantly associated with higher PDS score were smoking, lack of management recognition, not exercising, and encountering COVID-19 deaths; the correlation and regression coefficients (b) were significant (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING/HEALTH POLICY: Policy makers must expand healthcare policies to address frontline nurses' mental health as a priority during the pandemic. Nurse leaders must be involved in health policy development to protect nurses in anticipation of and during global health emergencies.

Incidence, Survival and Prognostic Factors of Oesophagogastric Cancer.

INTRODUCTION: Oesophagogastric cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer death worldwide due to its aggressive nature. Despite the high mortality rate, there is limited information regarding this cancer in Brunei. AIM: To estimate the incidence and survival duration of oesophagogastric cancer patients, to identify prognostic factors of oesophagogastric cancer and associated factors for late-stage oesophagogastric cancer detection. METHODS: A retrospective study on all oesophagogastric cancer patients registered in the population-based national cancer registry in Brunei from January 2010 to December 2018. Kaplan-Meier and Cox proportional hazard regression survival analyses and multiple logistic regression were applied. RESULTS: Sixty-eight oesophagogastric cancer patients' data were retrieved from the registry. The incidence was 2.75 cases per 100,000 adults per year. Median survival time was 1.18 years (95% CI: 0.77, 1.80) and the 3-year survival rate was 26.3%. Age (61-70 years) (adjusted HR = 0.38; 95% CI: 0.17, 0.89; p = 0.025) and those who have undergone chemotherapy (adj. HR = 0.40; 95% CI: 0.18, 0.90; p = 0.026) have a significantly lower mortality risk. Obesity (adj. HR = 11.94; 95% CI: 1.94, 73.36; p = 0.007), and stage 4 (advanced stage) cancer (adj. HR=4.11; 95% CI: 1.97, 8.58; p< 0.001) have a significantly higher mortality risk. Females have 3-time odds (adj. OR = 3.05; 95% CI: 1.09, 9.02; p = 0.038) of presenting with stage 4 cancer. Smokers have 13-time odds (Adj. OR=12.99; 95% CI: 1.92, 262.0; p = 0.025) of presenting with stage 4 cancer. CONCLUSION: Prognosis of oesophagogastric cancer remains poor. Addressing late detection and improve endoscopic surveillance and awareness of symptoms may help improve prognosis and mortality.

Psychometric properties of brief-COPE inventory among nurses.

OBJECTIVE: Brief-COPE inventory is widely used to assess coping; however, validation evidence is absent and previous results were inconsistent. This study aimed to validate psychometric properties of this inventory to ensure culturally appropriate usage. METHODS: Preliminary validation study on 423 female nurses from the United Arab Emirates. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with maximum likelihood estimation was computed to test four different previous models. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) protocol was used to determine underlying domain structure of Brief-COPE in this population. RESULTS: The four previous models on CFA had inadequate fit indexes. Two-factor (22-items) second-order model that explained 37.0% of the total variance with Cronbach's alpha at 0.81 and 0.88, respectively, was suggested. CONCLUSION: This validation of Brief-COPE is timely considering nurses enduring different types of stressors. In addition, cultural diversity needs to be considered in coping research. Re-assessment of this exploratory structure is necessary to ensure accurate measurement of coping strategies.

Survival of colorectal cancer patients in Brunei Darussalam: comparison between 2002-09 and 2010-17.

BACKGROUND: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a major cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide. It is the second leading cause of cancer death in men and women in Brunei Darussalam in 2017, posing a major burden on society. METHODS: This retrospective cohort study (n = 1035 patients diagnosed with CRC in Brunei Darussalam from 1st January 2002 until 31st December 2017) aims to compare the overall survival rates of CRC patients (2002-2017), to compare survival rates between two study periods (2002-2009 and 2010-2017) and to identify prognostic factors of CRC. Kaplan-Meier estimator and log-rank tests were performed to analyse the overall survival rates of CRC patients. Multiple Cox regression was performed to determine the prognostic factors of CRC with adjusted hazard ratios (Adj. HRs) reported. RESULTS: The 1-, 3- and 5-year survival rates of CRC patients are 78.6, 62.5, and 56.0% respectively from 2002 to 2017. The 1-, 3-, and 5-year survival rates of CRC patients for 2002-2009 are 82.2, 69.6, and 64.7%; 77.0, 59.1, and 51.3% for 2010-2017 respectively. A significant difference in CRC patients' survival rate was observed between the two study periods, age groups, ethnic groups, cancer stages, and sites of cancer (p < 0.05). The Adjusted Hazard Ratios (Adj. HRs) were significantly higher in the 2010-17 period (Adj. HR = 1.78, p < 0.001), older age group ( ≥ 60 years) (Adj. HR = 1.93, p = 0.005), distant cancer (Adj. HR = 4.69, p < 0.010), tumor at transverse colon and splenic flexure of colon (Adj. HR = 2.44, p = 0.009), and lower in the Chinese(Adj. HR = 0.63, p = 0.003). CONCLUSION: This study highlights the lower survival rates of CRC patients in 2010-2017, Malays, older patients, distant cancer, and tumors located at the latter half of the proximal colon (transverse colon), and predominantly LCRC (splenic flexure, descending colon, sigmoid colon, overlapping lesion colon and colon (NOS), as well as the rectosigmoid junction and rectum (NOS)). Age, ethnicity, cancer stage, and tumor location are significant prognostic factors for CRC. These findings underscore the importance of public health policies and programmes to enhance awareness on CRC from screening to developing strategies for early detection and management, to reduce CRC-associated mortality.