Page 373 - ANUAL REPORT MOH 2017

INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC HEALTH (IPH)

Institute for Public Health (IPH), under National Institutes of Health, Ministry of Health, focuses on public
health research. In line with the restructuring of health care system of Malaysia towards 1 Care, IPH
will strengthen its research capacity to support the Ministry of Health in the planning of the health care
delivery for the country. The main activities of the IPH consist of:
1. Research
2. Research Publications
3. Expert Consultations
4. Database Development
5. Depository Library for WHO Publications
6. Conferences, Seminars and Workshops

RESEARCH ACTIVITY
IPH has a total of 22 research projects which include a total of 12 population/community-based research/
surveys, and a total of 10 collaborative research projects with other agencies.

NATIONAL HEALTH & MORBIDITY SURVEY (NHMS) 2017
NHMS 2017 main scopes are adolescent health and nutrition. It is a cross-sectional study among school
students in Malaysia aged 10 years to 17 years. This survey obtained the approval from the Medical
Research and Ethic Committee, Ministry of Health as well as Ministry of Education with registration
number NMRR-16-698-30042.

Adolescent Health Survey (AHS) collects data on health-risk behaviour such as alcohol consumption;
drug and tobacco use, poor hygiene care, physical inactivity, sexual behaviours, violence and
unintentional injury. This survey is aimed at assessing the prevalence of health risk behaviours and
protective factors amongst secondary school students in Malaysia using anonymous self-administered
questionnaires in five (5) years cycle. The survey was conducted between 26 March and 3 May 2017
on the nationally-represented sample of 29,479 students.

This study found that prevalence of current cigarette smokers has increased from 11.5 per cent to
13.6 per cent while that of female adolescent smokers has increased to 5.3 per cent. Drugs use has
also increased to double the previous reported figures. The respondents reported drugs use initiation
at younger age. Sexual behaviour indexes among adolescents do not show significant yearly trends,
however, the prevalence of those who were having sex and practising safe sex has decreased. Our
adolescents have been reported to be involved in violence such physical fights, bully at school and
physical abuse at home especially those in lower secondary school age groups. A total of 29.9 per cent
adolescents has been involved in serious unintentional injury for the past 12 months.

This survey also found that the prevalence of suicidal ideation has increased from 7.9 per cent to 10.0
per cent. Of the total respondents, 9.3 per cent reported loneliness and 29.0 per cent reported addiction
to the internet. About 18.3 per cent of adolescents were having depression. With these findings, we
should re-prioritize our health services and shift focus to adolescent age groups as they were often
assumed to be the healthiest group in our population while the study findings proved the contrary.

372 ANNUAL REPORT 2017 MINISTRY OF HEALTH MALAYSIA