Golden Jubilee APACPH Conference in Magellant Sutra, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah 11-14 September 2018

The 50^th APACPH conference was held at the Magellant Sutra’s Resort Kota Kinabalu, Sabah has made impressive achievement through its success to assemble stakeholders from all the disciplines in public health that came together on one platform. The annual event includes the APACPH Executive Council Meeting, the APACPH General Assembly, pre-conference workshops and the Conference. In addition, the host had a special event as the commemorative for the Golden Jubilee APACPH conference celebration this year, that was the planting tree ceremony for the 50th APACPH Park. With the Theme of “Milestone event – Moving forward to Address Challenges in Regional Health”,  was aimed to disseminate knowledge of current, emerging and re-emerging public health issues were reorganized by professionals in their field of expertise that benefited all participated guests.

There were 535 people from 31 countries who attended the three days conference. The highest number of participants were from the host country, Malaysia with 152 participants, this was followed by China 109, Indonesia with 63 participants, Japan 45 participants, South Korea 26 participants, Philipines and Thailand 24 participants respectively. Participants from African countries like Ghana and Nigeria also from the Middle East like Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and also Iran have also attended the conference.

Scientific Programme

The scientific committee has received 632 abstracts; 599 acceptance letter was released, 419 for poster exhibition and 180 for oral presentation. Out of 632, 33 abstract were rejected due to various reason namely the concept paper and language issue. The scientific committee lead by Dr Alison Fong worked together with local and international reviewers for content expert reviewed. The selection of the top five posters and best oral presentation was done by the appointed local and international judges. The following are the best oral presenter;

1. Andre Matthias Muller from National University of Singapore, Singapore. Correlates of objectively-measured sedentary behaviour in Singaporean adults
2. Crystal Amiel Estrada from University of the Ryukyus, Okinawa, Japan. A qualitative study on the role of school psychosocial environment on the suicidal ideation and behaviours of Filipino adolescents enrolled in the Department of Education’s Alternative Learning System 
3. Shubash Shander Ganapathy from Institute of Public Health, Malaysia.Child discipline in Malaysia and factors associated with violent disciplinary methods: findings from NHMS 2016 
4. Alaa Altaluoni from Korea University, South Korea. The effects of meteorological factors on bacterial intestinal infectious disease related to emergency room visits in Seoul, South Korea 
5. Buddhini Denuwara from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Level of health literacy and factors associated with it among school teachers in an Education Zone in Colombo, Sri Lanka

The best poster presenter;

1. Kyoko Koto-Shimada from the University of Tokyo, Japan. Regulatory framework development on health professionals in Cambodia and Vietnam
2. Nantaporn Phatrabuddha from Burpha University, Thailand. Safety behaviour of migrant pregnant labours at work in Samutsakorn Province, Thailand
3. Takashi China from Okinawa International University, Japan. Mental health and well-being of university students in Okinawa
4. Ika Santi Widyasari from Airlangga University, Indonesia. Mlijo (vegetables itinerant lady) as hunters of high-risk pregnant woman Sempu, Banyuwangi, East Java in order to actualize zero AKI
5. Mohd Hazrin Hasim from Institute of Public Health, Malaysia. Spatial-temporal patterns of dengue cases in Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya, Malaysia, 2014-2016

YITA Award recipient

There were five Young Investigator Travelers Award (YITA) for this year too. The YITA provides funding to promising investigators to encourage and promote quality of research in public health and it is supported by APACPH. The winners for this year’s awards were as the following;

1. Amirah Azzeri; University Malaya. Out-of-pocket and catastrophic health expenditures among hepatitis C patients: results from a middle-income Asian country
2. Buddhini Denuwara; University of Colombo. Level of health literacy and factors associated with it among school teachers in an Education Zone in Colombo, Sri Lanka
3. Kelvin Wai Kit, Ling; The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Applying a social practice lens to understand the practice of separate collection of plastic waste among ethnic minority group in rural China
4. Sok Teng, Tan; National University of Singapore. Refugee’s health needs in South East Asia: health systems responses and challenges
5. Siew, Lim; Monash University. Comparing a telephone- and a group-delivered diabetes prevention program: characteristics of engaged and non-engaged postpartum mothers with a history of gestational diabetes

Besides the YITA awards, this year the organiser were continuing the APACPH tradition awards that the Professor Kazue K. McLaren leadership achievement award, Public Health Recognition award, Excellence in leadership medallion award and Medal of Merit award.

In the whole conference, there was a keynote address, by Dato’ Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, the Director-General of Health Malaysia, which spoke on the theme “Moving Forward to Address New Challenges in Regional Health” which is related to the present-day public health issues. It is paramount that public health leaders think ahead and be visionary in tackling new challenges that arise. Public health leaders need to also be open and think big as the world is vast and challenges arise not only at our own doors but regionally as well as globally too.

There were six symposiums with 24 speakers, four plenary sessions with 16 speakers, one public health forum consist of five speakers, oral session 153 presenters and poster exhibition with 225 presenter and four pre-conference workshops with 14 facilitators. During the 3 days conference, many important and interesting topics were discussed, the parallel symposium, plenary and Public Health forum topics include;

1. Symposium 1: Infectious Diseases – Tuberculosis and HIV
2. Symposium 2: Non-Communicable Diseases
3. Symposium 3: Occupational and Environmental Health
4. Symposium 4: Universal Health Coverage
5. Symposium 5: Bioethics and Health Law (Sponsored by Yonsei University, South Korea)
6. Symposium 6: Health Promotion and Capacity Building (Sponsored by Taipei Medical University, Taiwan)

1. Plenary Session 1: Public Health Responses – Enhancing University Roles
2. Public Health Forum: Regional Perspective On Current Public Health Trend
3. Plenary Session 2: Future Public Health Training
4. Plenary Session 3: 0 Industrial Revolution in Public Health
5. Plenary Session 4: Community Empowerment – Knowledge Transfer

Here are some highlights from the conference, more pictures are available from the APACPH 2018 conference website at http://apacph2018.com/v/