Background: This study examines the 20-year trend of suicide in 46 Muslim-majority countries throughout the world and compares their suicide rates and trends with the global average. Ecological-level associations between the proportion of the Muslim population, the age-standardized suicide rates, male-to-female suicide rate ratio, and the Human Development Index (HDI) in 2019 were examined. Methods: Age-standardized suicide rates were extracted from the WHO Global Health Estimates database for the period between 2000 and 2019. The rates in each country were compared with the age-standardized global average during the past 20 years. The countries were further grouped according to their regions/sub-regions to calculate the regional and sub-regional weighted age-standardized suicide rates involving Muslim-majority countries. Correlation analyses were conducted between the proportion of Muslims, age-standardized suicide rate, male: female suicide rate ratio, and the HDI in all countries. Joinpoint regression was used to analyze the age-standardized suicide rates in 2000-2019. Results: The 46 countries retained for analysis included an estimated 1.39 billion Muslims from a total worldwide Muslim population of 1.57 billion. Of these countries, eleven (23.9%) had an age-standardized suicide rate above the global average in 2019. In terms of regional/sub-regional suicide rates, Muslim-majority countries in the Sub-Saharan region recorded the highest weighted average age-standardized suicide rate of 10.02/100,000 population, and Southeastern Asia recorded the lowest rate (2.58/100,000 population). There were significant correlations between the Muslim population proportion and male-to-female rate ratios (r=-0.324, p=0.028), HDI index and age-standardized suicide rates (r=-0.506, p<0.001), and HDI index and male-to-female rate ratios (r=0.503, p<0.001) in 2019. Joinpoint analysis revealed that seven Muslim-majority countries (15.2%) recorded an increase in the average annual percentage change regarding age-standardized suicide rates during 2000-2019. Conclusions: Most Muslim-majority countries had lower age-standardized suicide rates than the global average, which might reflect religious belief and practice or due to Muslim laws in their judicial and social structure which may lead to underreporting. This finding needs further in-depth country and region-specific study with regard to its implication for public policy.

HRMARS is well established journal publisher based in Pakistan. It is publishing prominent journals in social sciences since 2011.

This study explored the relationship between variables emphasized in the theory’s first step of the three-step theory (3ST)—psychache, hopelessness, and their interaction—to suicide-related variables (i.e., lifetime suicidal ideation and attempt, past-year suicidal ideation, communication of suicidal thoughts, and self-reported future suicide attempt likelihood). Chinese undergraduate students (N = 11,399; mean age = 20.69 ± 1.35) from seven provinces participated in this cross-sectional survey. They answered the Suicidal Behaviors Questionnaire-Revised, Psychache Scale, and Beck Hopelessness Scale. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were used to examine the association between psychache, hopelessness, and hopelessness × psychache interaction on the outcome variables. Bivariate analyses showed that psychache and hopelessness were correlated with suicidal ideation and behaviors. In multiple regression models, the interaction between psychache and hopelessness was significantly associated with past-year suicidal ideation and self-report chances of a future suicide attempt, p < 0.001, though effect sizes for the interaction term were small. The results are broadly consistent with the 3ST’s proposition of how the combination of pain and hopelessness is related to various suicide-related variables. The low prevalence of suicide-related communication should inform future suicide prevention measures by encouraging help-seeking. Psychache as a correlate of the self-reported likelihood of a future attempt could be further investigated.

University students suffer from a high prevalence of mental health concerns. However, most studies on mental health help-seeking in Malaysia focussed on stigma and mental health literacy. This study aimed to examine the relationship between cultural value and university students’ attitudes towards seeking help for their mental health. An online survey was conducted using the Inventory of Attitudes towards Seeking Mental Health Services (IASMHS), Cultural Values Scale (CVSCALE), and Psychological Well-being Scale (PWBS) amongst university students in Malaysia. A total of 167 university students (Mean age = 21.57 years old, 75.4% females) participated in the study. Overall, the participants had a positive attitude towards mental health help-seeking. The results of the multiple linear regression analysis showed that the Chinese race (B = -0.315, p = 0.028), long-term orientation (B = 0.250, p = 0.002), Hindu religion (B = -0.242, p = 0.039), masculinity orientation (B = -0.223, p = 0.006), psychological well-being (B = 0.194, p = 0.008), Malay race (B = -0.165, p = 0.045), and participant’s age (B = 0.150, p = 0.028) were significantly associated with attitude towards mental health help-seeking. The results had implications for understanding cultural reasons that hinder mental health help-seeking amongst university students in Malaysia, and proposed recommendations in designing culturally relevant and appropriate interventions for targeted groups.

Basic Life Support (BLS) training for school teachers is increasingly acknowledged as an important public health method to disseminate knowledge regarding life-saving skills such as CPR. However, there is a lack of studies examining this crucial area of training in Malaysia. Hence, this study aimed to investigate student teachers' knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions towards Basic Life Support training in a public university in Malaysia. An online questionnaire was implemented among final-year student teachers spanning seven different majors. Participants were required to answer 40 questions regarding their CPR knowledge, attitudes towards obtaining BLS training, and perceptions towards performing CPR. A total of 111 student teachers (80.2% female) responded to the survey. Results indicated that the majority of the participants (98.2%) would like to join a CPR training if offered. However, most participants reported a lack of information or resources in obtaining CPR training (82.0%) and had fears of incurring injury (93.7%), being sued (96.4%), being uncomfortable about bodily fluids (85.6%), or concerns of being infected with a communicable disease (85.6%) by the individual receiving CPR. Notably, knowledge regarding CPR was low regardless of CPR training history. Therefore, there is a need for public health information to be disseminated regarding CPR to dispel fears regarding its practice and provide future teachers opportunities to obtain BLS training.

Problem-based learning (PBL) is a teaching model that uses real-world problems to lead students toward the learning objective of a course. It has been widely adopted in Malaysian education. However, PBL module for aboriginal people is scarce. This study aimed to provide suitable PBL activities in learning environmental problems by developing a PBL teaching module for the aborigine community and accessing its suitability. In this study, data was collected through an online validation form that was given to four validators, all of them have science or chemistry education backgrounds. The online questionnaires collected were further analyzed to investigate their responses to the module. The result has shown positive feedback (95.83%) as the responses are very encouraging. All respondents give approbation to the objectives of the module which are clearly stated and are parallel with the content. Many of them also strongly agree that the PBL model and the language used are suitable in this module. There is no doubt that PBL is a valuable tool to teach chemistry to improve students’ critical thinking and problem-solving skills effectively.