The Department is delighted to announce that the Malaysian Public Health Medicine Specialist Association (PPPKAM) has awarded its Research Grant 2024/2025 to Dr Catherine Thamarai Arumugam. The proposed study ‘Integrating Child Media Habits into Routine Developmental Assessment of Toddlers in Kuala Lumpur Health Clinic’ is aimed to determine the feasibility of incorporating elements of child media habits which includes screen time and pattern of screen-based media usage among young children into current developmental surveillance in a primary health clinic. The research work would also ascertain the effectiveness of image-based communication in empowering parents with toddlers to implement home media rules effectively. This novel clinic-based intervention is hoped to create awareness among caregivers on potential health effects of early exposure towards screen-based media and provide practical strategies to reduce screen time and establish a healthy nurturing environment for toddlers to thrive in. This project which is expected to be completed within a year could pave the way to a larger study in future which would take into consideration implementation challenges and areas of improvement based on the current one.
Article written by Cathrine Thamarai
You must be logged in to post a comment.