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HEALTH SEEKING BEHAVIOUR AMONG ORANG ASLI IN KUALA TAHAN,
PAHANG

WRITTEN BY: NOOR’AIN MOHAMAD YUNUS, SRI FATIANY ABDUL KADER JAILANI, SYUKRINA ALINI MAT ALI, SITI
NOORSURIANI MAON, NAFFISAH MOHD HASSAN

Orang Asli, are the indigenous minority people of Peninsular Malaysia and like other native nations around the world, Orang Asli were
among the most marginalized community, faring very low in all the social indicators, It is reported that their health status often lags behind
compared with the national population. Moreover, there are increasing trends of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) among Orang Asli
community. Previous study reported that the concept of health and illness among Orang Asli communities as culture specific and normally
associated with supernatural agents. This phenomenon affected their health seeking behaviour (HSB) as majority of them prefer to utilise
traditional ways of healing. However, there are limited studies conducted to identify the HSB among Orang Asli communities. Therefore,
this conceptual paper was aimed at investigating the health seeking behavior of Orang Asli communities. A qualitative study will be
conducted among those Orang Asli aged 18 years and above in Kuala Tahan. An interview will be conducted to identify and explore their
health status, factors influencing their health seeking behaviour and their perceptions towards healthcare services provided to them. Data of
this study will derived from the recorded audio and supported with the manually jotted information gained from interview conversation. The
recorded audio will be transcribed in text format. The researcher will go through the transcripts and interview notes in order to grab the main
idea of the conversation. Understanding the health seeking behaviour will help healthcare providers and policy makers design strategies to
enhance the quality of healthcare services for Orang Asli communities in Malaysia.