The Orang Asli of Malaysia continue to experience poor health. There appears to be stagnation of certain aspect of their health status. Underweight (low weight-for-age) and stunting (low height-for-age) are significant amongst Orang Asli children. Worm infestation such as Ascaris, Trichuris and hookworm continue to afflict Orang Asli communities in Malaysia. Orang Asli communities can also be afflicted by other kinds of parasites, e.g. malaria parasites, microsporida parasites and Cryptosporidium parasites. Thus, primary care doctors who treat Orang Asli patients should be on the lookout for malnutrition and its effects (including anaemia, iodine deficiency, Vitamin A deficiency) as well as worm and parasite infestations. Such patients may need to undergo de-worming at regular intervals because of the tendency to get re-infected. Primary care doctors also need to be aware of possible interactions between infestations and nutritional deficiencies.
A cross»sectional study was undertaken between April 2005 to _1 uly 2005 to determine the extent of the health problems experienced by individuals involved in the December 2004 tsunami wave disaster in the Northeast District of Penang, Malaysia. The overall health status of the respondents were evaluated using the Short Form 36 (SF-36) questionnaire. Out of 171 respondents, 160(93 .6%) were Malays, 8(4.7%) were Chinese and 3(1.8%) were Indians. The mean age ofrespondents was 45.4 years, 15.9 years. Ninety-four of the respondents were males (55.0%) while 7 7(45.0%) were females. The overall mean physical component score was significantly lower (66.9:23 .O) amongst respondents with low education level compared with those with high education level (76.3:19.1, p=0.004). This mean score was also significantly much lower ( 68.7:22 .3) amongst those who are married compared to those who were not married (79.8:1 7.4, p=0.003) . The overall mental health score was significantly much higher (78.8:14.6) amongst those who were not married compared to those who were married (68.5:19.2, p=0.001). The overall mental health score was also significantly higher amongst those in the younger age»group (62.3:16.1) compared to those in the older age»group (72.4:18.9, p=0.005). Based on the scores obtained on the Physical Health and Mental Health dimensions of the SF-36 questionnaire, it can be concluded that the health of victims with low education, elderly and those who were married were more adversely affected than others. Therefore, it is vital that medical as well as psychological attention should be channeled to these risk groups who responded more adversely to disasters.
Public and private hospitals in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor were evaluated in terms of their accessibility for the physically disabled. The research hypotheses for this study included the following: (1) Both types of hospitals are accessible for the physically disabled as measured by specific criteria but (2) the degree of accessibility is higher in the case of private hospitals as compared to public hospitals. A total of 23 private hospitals and 11 public hospitals in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor were invited to participate in the study. The 5 private hospitals and 5 public hospitals that agreed were evaluated for adequacy of facilities for the physically-disabled. For this purpose, 13 specific criteria were assessed and scored for each hospital. These criteria were also grouped into 5 categories, namely, parking, toilet, door and lift, corridor and ramp. Scores were compared between each hospital and then aggregated and compared for private hospitals versus public hospitals. It was found that none of the 5 private hospitals and 5 public hospitals studied satisfied 100% of the criteria evaluated. Looking at each hospital individually, the overall scores range from 32% to 92% for the criteria set. Only 4 of the 10 hospitals in our sample achieved overall scores of 80% or higher in terms of the evaluation criteria we used. With the exception of availability of ramps where public hospitals scored slightly higher ,for most of the individual criterion, private hospitals scored higher than public hospitals. Looking at each criterion across all hospitals, the scores range from 59.2% (adequacy of parking) to 85% (adequacy of corridors). The median score obtained by private hospitals and by public hospitals for all 13 criteria were analysed for any difference. The difference between private hospitals and public hospitals is not statistically significant (Mann-Whitney U = 6.5, p-value = 0.099). There is no significant difference between Kuala Lumpur/Selangor private and public hospitals in terms of accessibility for physically disabled people. However, some hospitals are more accessible for the physically disabled than other hospitals. These findings indicate that there is room for improvement.