The Centre for Population Health (CePH) successfully hosted the CePH Talk Series | Reflection on Public Health Nutrition: An Insight Session with the Expert on 9 April 2026, featuring Professor Dr Hazreen Abdul Majid, Honorary Professor at the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine (SPM), Universiti Malaya. The session was moderated by Dr Catherine Thamarai Arumugam, Medical Lecturer at SPM.
A key highlight of the session was the Malaysian Adolescent Cohort Study (MyHeARTs), a landmark longitudinal study following participants from adolescence into young adulthood. Professor Dr Hazreen highlighted its significant impact, noting that the cohort has already generated at least eight research outputs, strengthening the evidence base in public health nutrition.
Drawing from his experience as a Principal Investigator, Professor Dr Hazreen reflected on the realities of conducting cohort studies, especially the ethical responsibilities involved throughout the research process. He also highlighted practical challenges, including biobanking—such as ensuring proper facilities, maintaining the quality of biological samples over time, and following appropriate handling and storage procedures. In addition, he shared the complexities of working across multiple school settings, including coordinating field activities and maintaining long-term follow-up of participants across different stages of their development.
He also emphasised the importance of securing stakeholder buy-in, which he described as crucial for the success of long-term cohort studies. This, he noted, requires understanding who the stakeholders are, including their background and prior experience, so that engagement and communication can be tailored effectively.
Importantly, he encouraged participants to take a more critical and reflective approach to public health policy—questioning whether policies truly work, identifying gaps, and revisiting the underlying problems they are meant to address. This perspective reinforced the idea that evidence must not only be generated, but also continuously evaluated and applied in context.
The session left participants with a strong reminder of the importance of conducting research with integrity, ensuring that evidence is meaningfully translated into practice, and continuously reflecting on how public health policies are designed, implemented, and improved to achieve real-world impact.
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