Page 13 - NHMS2015-tradisional and complementary medicine volume IV

Traditional and Complementary Medicine (T&CM)
VOLUME IV

BACKGROUND

Malaysia is a multiracial country comprising of Malays, Chinese, Indians, indigenous
people and others. The various ethnicity accounts for the varied unique and distinctive
cultural identities, food, traditions, beliefs, festivals, arts and craft, costumes,
architectural styles and others. The main healthcare system in Malaysia is the
conventional system but in reflection to the rich ethnic diversity, the traditional medicine
of each group is very much ingrained in the society. On top of this, the demand for
complementary medicine has also increased. A study on the use of Traditional and
Complementary Medicine (T&CM) by the Malaysian population was conducted in
2004.(1) The result showed a prevalence of 69.4% of Malaysian population had ever
used T&CM in their lifetime and 55.6% had used T&CM within the last twelve month
period.(1) The value of use within the last twelve month period was comparable to the
T&CM use in other countries such as Australia 68.9% (2) and Japan 76.0%.(3)

Considering the high demand of T&CM, many efforts have been conducted since 2004
by the Malaysian government to integrate T&CM into national healthcare system. The
initiatives and measures were taken to ensure safety and quality of T&CM practices
including establishment of the Traditional and Complementary Medicine Division, the
gazettement of T&CM Act 2013(4) to regulate the practitioners and practices,
standardisation and accreditation of education and training of recognised practices,
establishment of T&CM units in selected government hospitals, promotion of safe use of
T&CM and increased numbers of research and development. This is in line with the
strategy of World Health Organization in recognising the contribution of T&CM to
health.(5)

In the T&CM Act 2013, the recognised T&CM practices have been categorised into six
main groups based on the main ethnic groups and concept of practice and further
divided into distinct practices (Table 1).

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NATIONAL HEALTH AND MORBIDITY SURVEY 2015 MINISTRY OF HEALTH MALAYSIA