A priority list of environmental health issues for Malaysia

Hashim JH 1 , Hashim Z 2 , Hod R 3 , Jalaludin J 2 , Mohamed N 4 , Karuppannan S 5 Show all authors , Mazeli AR 4 , Sahrani S 6 , Zulkaflli ZA 6

Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Environmental Health and Occupational Safety, Universiti Selangor, Shah Alam Campus, Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia
  • 2 Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Malaysia
  • 3 Department of Community Health, National University of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • 4 Disease Control Division, Ministry of Health Malaysia, Putrajaya, Malaysia
  • 5 Environmental Management and Research Association of Malaysia, Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia
  • 6 Engineering Services Division, Ministry of Health Malaysia, Putrajaya, Malaysia
Rev Environ Health, 2023 Jun 27;38(2):349-359.
PMID: 35468665 DOI: 10.1515/reveh-2022-0030

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: Environmental risk factors contribute to 24% of the global burden of disease from all causes in disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), and to 23% of all global deaths. Malaysia being an advanced developing country, there is a need to prioritise environmental health issues to enable environmental health practitioners to focus on the most significant and urgent environmental health concerns.

CONTENT: This project was undertaken by a Thematic Working Group on Environmental Health Experts (TWG 10) under the Malaysian National Environmental Health Action Plan. Sixteen pre-selected environmental health issues were presented to a two focus group discussions among 20 environmental health and related professionals who then scored each issue on its magnitude and severity scale.

SUMMARY: The total of these scores generated a list of priority environmental health issues for Malaysia. Children environmental health came out as the environmental health issue of the highest priority.

OUTLOOK: We hope that this list of priority environmental health issues will be used for prioritising academic and professional manpower training, research funding allocation and planning for intervention programmes by various stakeholders.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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