Collecting qualitative research data on health seeking behaviour ofPeninsular Malaysia’s aboriginal people

2020

In Australia, an evidence gap exists for governments and policymakers about what it means when the cultures of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are included in public policies. Specifically, when the cultures of Indigenous Australians have been incorporated in a public health policy like the Australian Government's National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan 2013-2023 (Health Plan), how do policymakers implement - enable, embed, and enact - cultures? More disturbing is the non-recognition of Indigenous culture's innate relationship to the knowledges held by Indigenous Australians. In recognition of the importance of Indigenous cultures to the health and wellbeing of Indigenous Australians, the centrality of culture in the Health Plan represents the first national Indigenous public policy that reflects its relevance. This research protocol describes a public policy qualitative research study that aims to address this evidence gap by using the He...

The Orang Asli is one of the indigenous ethnic groups in Malaysia, with its majority residing within outskirt and rural areas. Such a settlement distribution pattern largely influences their culture including the aspects of medicinal practices. Although they are exposed to modernisation elements by the Malaysian government, part of the culture and traditional lifestyles especially in the aspects of illnesses healing are still largely practiced. Studies were carried out towards the Batek tribe in Kuala Koh, Kelantan to examine two (2) questions; (i) what are their perceptions towards the causes of illnesses? And (ii) what are the approaches taken in treating illnesses? During the research, participation observation and interview techniques were applied in the data gathering process. Documents produced by previous researchers were also analyzed as a basis for focus discussions related to the issues at hand. The results showed that the Batek tribe believes that sickness suffered by individuals stems from two (2) factors. First, factors related to spiritual elements such as harassment by the supernatural powers and faint-heartedness. Second, physical factors related to changes in natural phenomenon and human negligence in exploiting natural resources. Based on these beliefs the Batek tribe possesses two approaches in treating illnesses. First, through means of faith-healing, for sickness believed to originate from spiritual factors. Second, the application of herbs obtained from forests surrounding their settlements.

Public health, 2011

Aboriginal people are under-represented in epidemiological research, largely due to past failures to engage and recruit Aboriginal communities, research fatigue and the use of culturally inappropriate methods. A qualitative study was undertaken in rural and urban Aboriginal communities in north-eastern and south-western Ontario to identify culturally congruent public health research methodologies.

The Medical journal of Malaysia, 2013

The Medical Journal of Australia, 2012

riting in the Journal about Indigenous health in 2011, Sir Michael Marmot suggested that the challenge was to conduct research, and to ultimately apply findings from that research, to enable Indigenous Australians to lead more flourishing lives that they would have reason to value. As committed Indigenous health researchers in Australia, we reflect Marmot's ideal -to provide the answers to key questions relating to health that might enable Indigenous Australians to live the lives that they would choose to live. As a group, we have over 120 collective years' experience in Indigenous health research. Over this time, particularly in recent years as ethical guidelines have come into play, there have been many examples of research done well. However, as the pool of researchers is constantly replenished, we hold persisting concerns that some emerging researchers may not be well versed in the principles of best practice regarding research among Indigenous Australian populations. Implementing any research methodology among Indigenous Australian groups will work best when the following 10 principles are met. These principles are reflected in the many documents related to working and researching with Indigenous Australians; for example, the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) ethical guidelines for research among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. 2 In this article, we set out these principles in one short, accessible document.

BMC Public Health

The purpose of this correspondence is to express our disappointment with the coverage of the BMC Public Health supplement: Vol 19 (4) titled “Health and Nutritional Issues Among Low Income Population in Malaysia”, which neglected to include the fundamental health and nutrition issues that are adversely affecting the lives and livelihood of the indigenous peoples. The Supplement comprised 21 papers. Two of these papers included indigenous peoples as study subjects. These two papers addressed peripheral, albeit important health issues, namely visual impairment and quality of life, and not the persistent and rising health concerns impacting this population. We will provide evidence from research and reports to justify our critique that the Supplement missed the opportunity to spotlight on the serious extent of the health and nutritional deprivations of the indigenous peoples of Malaysia. As researchers of the indigenous peoples, we ought to lend our voice to the “silenced minority” by ...

BMC Research Notes, 2015

Background: The considerably lower average life expectancy of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, compared with non-Aboriginal and non-Torres Strait Islander Australians, has been widely reported. Prevalence data for chronic disease and health risk factors are needed to provide evidence based estimates for Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders population health planning. Representative surveys for these populations are difficult due to complex methodology. The focus of this paper is to describe in detail the methodological challenges and resolutions of a representative South Australian Aboriginal population-based health survey.

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

Access to food has been determined to be a factor that strongly influences the dietary intake and eating habit of indigenous people (Orang Asli, OA). This study explored food acquisition and the barriers in obtaining traditional and market foods among the Jahai subtribe (within the Negrito ethnic group) via a qualitative approach. Twenty-eight OA (14 males and 14 females) from Gerik, Perak, Malaysia participated in four focus group discussions (FGDs; two male-only and two female-only groups; seven informants in each FGD). Thematic analysis was adopted to analyse the gathered data. The results found that the Jahai applied both modern (buying and receiving food assistance) and traditional (gathering, farming, fishing, and hunting) methods in obtaining food. The barriers they faced in gathering sufficient food supply included low purchasing power, high demand for food, high transport costs, depletion of food supplies in their surroundings, threats from wild animals on the farm and duri...

COMMUNITY-BASED RESEARCH METHODS were used in a study of health needs with the Wikwemikong Unceded Indian Reserve, Ontario, Canada based on critical theory, Indigenous teachings and participatory action research (PAR). The process of developing the project led to the elucidation of eight key principles deemed necessary for the development of a project that is both culturally and community appropriate: partnership, empowerment, community control, mutual benefit, wholism, action, communication and respect. Adherence to these eight principles appears necessary for an ethical and an effective research process in Aboriginal communities.

The factors driving the disparity in health outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians include socioeconomic factors, racism, and history. The current study focused on exploring Indigenous participants' perspectives of the factors that affect the health behavior of their community members. Participatory action research methodology and a grounded theory approach were utilized. In total, 120 members of two urban West Australian Indigenous communities participated in focus group discussions. There was substantial similarity between the themes that emerged within the discussions held in the two communities. Factors relating to culture, social connections, racism, communication, and personal aspects were particularly salient to health behavior of the participants. Several of the themes including culture, racism, communication, and distrust highlight the tension caused by being a member of a minority cultural group that has been marginalized by the practices and attitudes of the dominant cultural group. Personal choice was sometimes prioritized over health.

Journal of Health & Translational Medicine, 2019

This paper proposed a conceptual model on developing a new Health Literacy Module for Indigenous People in Malaysia. This proposed model could be used as a reference for researchers to develop new strategies to overcome health issues on Indigenous People. The proposed model incorporated three (3) phases which are (i) Phase 1: To determine the Knowledge, Attitude & Practice (KAP) on parasitic infections among Indigenous People, (ii) Phase 2: To develop self-useful kit for Indigenous People according to the needs in Phase 1, (iii) Phase 3: To develop a health literacy module of parasitic infections as a referral for Indigenous People. This research will have a significant contribution to provide an in-depth knowledge on identification of health care problems related to parasitic infections towards the development of health literacy module for Indigenous People. Authors will propose new or adapted or/and adopted tools/products/guidelines to be established based on the findings of this research. The findings are aimed to improve quality of life for Indigenous People in Malaysia.

Australian Journal of Rural Health

This is the author manuscript accepted for publication and has undergone full peer review but has not been through the copyediting, typesetting, pagination and proofreading process, which may lead to differences between this version and the Version of Record. Please cite this article as

Summary: Indigenous people across the world experience more health related problems as compared to the population at large. So, this review article is broadly an attempt to highlight the important factors for indigenous peoples' health problems, and to recommend some suggestions to improve their health status. Standard database for instance, Pubmed, Medline, Google scholar, and Google book searches have been used to get the sources. Different key words, for example, indigenous people and health, socioeconomic and cultural factors of indigenous health, history of indigenous peoples' health, Australian indigenous peoples' health, Latin American indigenous peoples' health, Canadian indigenous peoples' health, South Asian indigenous peoples' health, African indigenous peoples' health, and so on, have been used to find the articles and books. This review paper shows that along with commonplace factors, indigenous peoples' health is affected by some distinctive factors such as indigeneity, colonial and post-colonial experience, rurality, lack of governments' recognition etc., which non-indigenous people face to a much lesser degree. In addition, indigenous peoples around the world experience various health problems due to their varied socioeconomic and cultural contexts. Finally, this paper recommends that the spiritual, physical, mental, emotional, cultural, economic, socio-cultural and environmental factors should be incorporated into the indigenous health agenda to improve their health status. Introduction Indigenous people all over the world are historically subjugated, seceded and discriminated, which is explicitly and implicitly affecting their health status also. Studies reveal that indigenous/ethnic populations experience more health related problems and inequalities, as compared to their mainstream populations

The Medical journal of Malaysia

The study's aim was to construct and validate a diabetes mellitus knowledge questionnaire in Bahasa Malaysia for Orang Asli (OA-DKQ). The questionnaire was administered to; case (Orang Asli) and control (administrative staff) groups at baseline and retested two weeks later. The Cronbach's Alpha was used to determine internal consistency and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was used to determine test-retest reliability. The OA-DKQ has an internal consistency of 0.806. These findings suggest the OA-DKQ is an acceptable instrument to assess knowledge and preventive behaviour in Orang Asli (86 words).

2007

The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the conceptualisation of culture within public health practice, and consider its implications in our understandings of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander 1 health status. There is no doubt that culture is a popular concept within public health, particularly in describing health differentials between populations distinguished by race, ethnicity and culture.