Page 25 - NIH Bulletin Vol. 20 July - December 2022 "Nurturing Ideas in Healthcare"

Institute for
Public Health

The National Health & Morbidity Survey 2022:
Adolescent Health

Mr Lim Kuang Kuay, Dr S Maria Awaluddin

In order to improve adolescent health globally, the World Health Organization (WHO) have initiated the development of the health risk
behaviours measurement tools known as Global School-based Student Health Survey (GSHS). Briefly, the GSHS is a relatively low-cost
school-based survey which uses a self-administered questionnaire to obtain data on young people’s health behaviours and protective
factors related to the leading causes of morbidity and mortality amongst adults worldwide. Currently, more than 140 countries have been
using the GSHS to periodically monitor the prevalence of important health risk behaviours and protective factors amongst adolescents.
In some countries, the survey was repeated over a number of years to determine trends. The Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education
Malaysia took a step forward in collaborating with the World Health Organization (WHO) in conducting the first GSHS Malaysia in 2012
among adolescents aged 13 to 17 years to determine a baseline of health status of adolescents in Malaysia. In 2017, the second adolescent
health study (AHS) was conducted in the country to monitor the health status of adolescents. The surveys revealed an increasing trend
of health risk behaviours and protective factors among adolescents in Malaysia (Table 1). Thus, it is timely for the survey to be repeated in
2022 to further monitor the health status of adolescents in the country. Few scopes were added in this study such as the impact of Covid-19
pandemic, internet gaming disorder, cyberbullying and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) knowledge among adolescents. The target
populations were school students aged 13 -17 years old from all government schools and private schools under the purview of the Ministry of
Education and Ministry of Rural and Regional Development were included in the survey. The school platform was selected as the entry point
due to easy recruitment and were representatives of adolescents in Malaysia

Table 1: The prevalence of health risk behaviours and protective factors among adolescents in Malaysia and neighbouring countries

The current NHMS 2022: Adolescent Health was led by Mr Lim Kuang Kuay as the principal investigator while the advisor was Dr Noor
Ani Ahmad, the director of Institute for Public Health. The whole research team members consisted of the stakeholders from the Ministry of
Health and the Ministry of Education, the study also included the research experts from local universities, central coordinating team and data
collection team. Due to the uncertainty of school opening and the strict standard operating procedure during the COVID-19 pandemic, few
meetings were conducted virtually between the two ministries to plan and agree on the suitable date to conduct the study.

24 NIH Bulletin | National Institutes of Health NIH Bulletin | National Institutes of Health 25