Original Research
Public Health Medicine
MJPHM Research Article — Volume 4, Issue 2 (2004), Pages 54–58
Last reviewed: March 2026
Key Findings
- This article was published during MJPHM’s early years, when the journal was among the first dedicated public health medicine publications in Malaysia.
- Volume 4 (2004) contributed to building the evidence base for Malaysian public health during a period of significant health system development.
- The research addressed public health priorities within Malaysia’s 8th Malaysia Plan period (2001–2005), which emphasised quality healthcare and disease prevention.
- MJPHM’s early volumes established important precedents for public health research publication standards in Malaysia.
Article Context
This article was published in Volume 4, Issue 2 of the Malaysian Journal of Public Health Medicine in 2004, during the journal’s early formative period. MJPHM was founded in 2001, and by its fourth volume, the journal was establishing a regular publication rhythm and building its contributor base across Malaysia’s public health research community.
The year 2004 was notable in Malaysian public health for several reasons. The country was recovering from the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak that had affected the region in 2003, which had stimulated significant investments in infectious disease surveillance and outbreak response capacity. The National Health and Morbidity Survey continued to provide essential data on population health status. Malaysia was also beginning to grapple more seriously with the rising burden of non-communicable diseases, as epidemiological data increasingly confirmed the scale of the diabetes and cardiovascular disease epidemics.
Malaysia’s Health Landscape in 2004
The Malaysian healthcare system in 2004 was characterised by a strong public sector foundation complemented by a growing private healthcare sector. The public system provided heavily subsidised healthcare through a network of primary care clinics, district hospitals, and tertiary centres, while the private sector offered an expanding range of services, including the emerging medical tourism industry.
Public health infrastructure included a well-established disease surveillance system, a national immunisation programme with high coverage rates, and maternal and child health services that had achieved impressive outcome improvements over preceding decades. The country’s public health workforce included a growing cadre of public health medicine specialists trained through programmes at Malaysian universities, with MJPHM providing an essential publication outlet for their research.
Key public health challenges of the period included: the continuing burden of dengue fever, with periodic outbreaks requiring intensive vector control responses; rising rates of HIV infection, particularly among injecting drug users; the emerging non-communicable disease epidemic; and environmental health issues including water quality concerns and workplace health hazards in the rapidly industrialising economy.
MJPHM’s Founding Period
MJPHM was established by the Malaysian Public Health Physicians’ Association (PPPKAM) to address a clear need: Malaysia’s growing community of public health researchers required a dedicated journal that could publish locally relevant research that might not find appropriate placement in international publications focused on other geographical contexts. The journal’s founding represented an important step in the professionalisation of public health research in Malaysia.
Early volumes of MJPHM published research spanning the full range of public health disciplines, from epidemiological studies of specific diseases to health services research evaluating programme effectiveness, from nutritional surveys to occupational health investigations. These contributions laid the groundwork for the journal’s subsequent growth and eventual indexing in Scopus and other databases, which significantly enhanced the visibility and impact of Malaysian public health research.
Public Health Implications and Significance
The early volumes of MJPHM, including this article from Volume 4, contributed to establishing a culture of evidence-based public health practice in Malaysia. By providing a peer-reviewed platform for local research, the journal helped ensure that Malaysian public health interventions and policies could be informed by locally generated evidence rather than relying exclusively on research from other countries with different demographic, environmental, and healthcare system characteristics.
Limitations
This page serves as a placeholder for an article from MJPHM’s early publication period. The original article was published in PDF format on the journal’s Joomla-based platform. Complete bibliographic details may be available through the MJPHM editorial office or through academic database searches. Readers seeking the specific content are encouraged to contact the journal directly.
MJPHM Research Article. Malaysian Journal of Public Health Medicine, 2004; 4(2): 54–58.
Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)