This is a study of 148 women seeking induced abortion by doctors. The typical woman in this study was married, with 2 or more children, Chinese, urban, 21-30 years and had completed primary education. She was motivated to defer pregnancy and to a lesser extent to limit family size by resorting to induced abortion.
The history of efforts to establish a cancer registry in Malaysia since 1961 is reviewed. In 1980, the staff of the Institute for Medical Research in Kuala Lumpur was authorized to develop an official registry that would combine the resources of the various university faculties, the hospitals, research institutes, and the Cancer Society. Special registries operate for oral precancerous conditions and for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). The topics of recent epidemiological studies include: a review of all cancers diagnosed at the University Hospital during 1972-74, the association of Epstein-Barr virus and NPC, social and environmental factors associated with NPC, oral cancers, and childhood cancers.
The health of a population and the development of health services in a country at a particular time in history are directly linked to the socioeconomic system. This paper discusses health and health services in Malay Peninsula during the time that it was a British colony. Economic production under British colonialism, which is basically a capitalist system, is organized primarily for the purpose of realizing profits. The health of the population is in direct conflict with and generally subordinated to this main objective. The pattern of health that emerges reflects this general framework. Moreover, health services under the colonialist system are developed primarily to serve the economic interests of the colonialists. Hence, the structure of health services is biased toward curative medicine and centered mainly in the urban areas.
A recent anthropometric study of Sabah reported that 37.1 percent of children were nutritional dwarfs, 12.5 percent were acutely malnourished and 9.4 percent were stunted and wasted. It was also noted that Muruts were among the top five most malnourished ethnic groups in Sabah. The present study looks at the ecological basis of malnutrition among Muruts and concludes that a variety of interrelated factors, including the lack of education, climatic and soil conditions, poverty, food habits and taboos as well as diseases from poor sanitation and malaria contribute to the presence of malnutrition among rural Muruts. It is recommended that a multidisciplinary approach be taken to control and prevent malnutrition among the Muruts and that the single most important measure aside from malaria control is education of the people and the development of marketable skills.
Use of contraceptives by some selected characteristics was studied for married women in the reproductive age range (MWRA) in three south‐east Asian countries. The data were obtained from each country's national family planning/fertility survey conducted around the mid‐seventies. Only the gross relationship between each of the selected characteristics and contraceptive use was compared. The proportion of MWRA using contraceptives for Singapore was almost twice as high as the corresponding proportions for Peninsular Malaysia and Thailand. The pattern of contraceptive use was largely similar for Thailand and Malaysia but different from Singapore. The differences were largely attributed to the absence of a large rural population in Singapore, the apparently greater tendency of women in Singapore to use reversible contraceptive methods for birth spacing and the easier access by women to family planning information and services, particularly sterilisation, than in Peninsular Malaysia and Thailand.
A survey of 4.112 primary school children living in and around Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, revealed that 12.9% of the children were infested with Pediculus humanus capitis. Indians (28.3%) and Malays (18.9%) have a higher prevalence than Chinese (4.6%). The higher prevalence among Indians and Malays correlates well with their lower socio-economic status in the community; long hair also contributes to the higher rates of pediculosis among them. The prevalence rate was found to be related to socio-economic status, length of hair, family size, age, crowding and personal hygiene. Treatment with 0.2% and 0.5% malathion in coconut oil gave cure rates of 93% and 100%. Treatment with gammexane and actellic at 0.5% concentration gave a cure rate of 100% against adults and nymphs of Pediculus humanus capitis.
"This article examines some of the links between the phenomena of urban migration and squatter settlements in the Third World city. This will be done by demonstrating that both are outcomes of fundamental social and political forces that have operated on these societies. Migration and squatting are placed in a context of the historical processes that led to the uneven development of Malaysia. The article offers some explanation for the origin of the inequalities observed in spatial structures--in this case urban housing--by focusing on one of the contributory factors, namely migration."
A survey was conducted in six selected rural villages to obtain baseline data on socioeconomic status, nutrition, environmental sanitation and behavioural aspects in relation to diarrhoeal diseases, using a standard questionnaire. Subsequent to this, children 0-4 years of age were followed weekly for six months for diarrhoeal disease. Eleven variables representing socioeconomic status, nutritional status, housing condition, environmental sanitation, mother's knowledge and beliefs were investigated using stepwise logistic regression to determine significant predictors of diarrhoeal disease. Children who were below two years of age, living in conditions of poor sanitation and poor quality water supply, whose houses were prone to flooding and who had mothers whose sanitary habits were not influenced by their religious beliefs, were at significantly greater risk of diarrhoeal disease.
A review of the various studies on toxoplasmosis in peninsular Malaysia is presented. The period of review spanned between 1973 and 1980 during which a number of serological surveys were carried out for the presence of Toxoplasma gondii antibody in Malaysians, using either the indirect hemagglutination (I.H.A.) or the indirect fluorescent antibody (I.F.A.) tests. The prevalence rates of Toxoplasma antibody were consistently foundhighest among Malays, followed by Indians, Orang Aslis (Aborigines) and lowest among Malays, followed by Indians, Orang Aslia (Aborigines) and lowest among Chinese, the 4 major ethnic groups living in Malaysia. Positive titres, present in all age groups, showed an increase with age but no difference due to sex. However, higher prevalence of positive cases was recorded among rural dwellers and the lower socioeconomic group than from urban dwellers. The possible routes of infection among the ethnic groups were discussed. Among animal populations, the presence of Toxoplasma antibody was detected in buffaloes, swine, goats, cattle, cats and dogs. The epidemiological importance of the findings are discussed and suggestions made for future studies.
The study presents recent data on the prevalence and pattern of nutritional anemia in the Maternity Hospital, Kuala Lumpur. A total of 309 pregnant women in their third trimester, of Malay, Chinese and Indian origin from the lower socio-economic strata were randomly selected for the study. Hematological indices (including Hb, PCV, MCHC, and TRBC), serum iron, transferrin saturation and ferritin, serum folate as well as protein and albumin were determined. Based on Hb and PCV values, 30-40 percent of the women could be considered anemic; approximately 50 percent of them presented with unsatisfactory serum iron, transferrin saturation and ferritin values; 60.9 percent had low serum folate levels; and about 30 percent may be considered to be of poor protein nutriture. Anemia in the study population was seen to be related mostly to iron and to a lesser extent, folate deficiency. Hematological, iron, folate and protein status was observed to be the poorest amongst the Indian women, better in the Malay group and generally the best amongst the Chinese women. Birth records of 169 of these women revealed that all of them had live births. Nearly all the infants were delivered by normal vaginal delivery (NVD) The mean gestational age was 38.6 weeks. One of the infants had a birth weight of <2.0 kg; incidence of low birth weight, <2.5 kg, was 8.3 percent. Although there was a trend of deteriorating hematological, iron and protein status of women from the 0, 1 -3 and >=4 parity groups, these differences were not statlstlcally significant.
"Data from the Malaysian Family Life Survey are used to examine the sensitivity of urban/rural income differentials to the definition and measurement of income. Measured income differentials vary with the extent to which nonmarket activities are included in the scope of income, how the distribution of income is summarized, and whether one adjusts for differences in hours of work, household size and composition, ethnic composition, and other sociodemographic characteristics. For example, depending on the measure chosen, estimates of the amount by which urban income exceeds rural income in Malaysia range from 9 percent to 141 percent."
A random sample of 23 591 single livebirths was drawn from the Singapore Registry for 1967-1974, and information extracted from the birth certificates. The proportion of low birthweight infants (2500 g or less) fell markedly from 9.1% in 1967 to 5.7% in 1974, which has not been the finding in other studies. Variation in the proportions of low birthweight infants by sex, maternal age, parity, and social class, are broadly in agreement with other studies. Indians were found to have significantly smaller babies (mean weight of 3020 g) with a higher proportion of low birthweight ones (11.5%) than the Malays (3080 g and 8.1%) and the Chinese (3130 g and 6.1%). This is despite similar distributions of gestational age, and for term babies the differences in low birthweight proportions are highly significant with Chinese 5.0%, Malays 6.5%, and Indians 9.8%. The reasons for this are discussed with the implication that lower birthweights in Indians are to some extent of ethnic/genetic origin.
"This article provides some empirical information pertaining to the benefits and costs of foreign labor to Singapore and subjects to critical analysis some of Pang and Lim's hypotheses concerning the costs of labor importation presented in a previous article.... The article concludes with a discussion of the real cost to Malaysia of Singapore's labor importation policies and its potential for disruption of Malaysia's development plans."