The core projects are the data collections that SEACO designs, funds and conducts on a recurring basis. Together they enumerate a defined population, follow it over time, and record its health, social circumstances and deaths in a linked record now spanning more than a decade — the defining features of a Health and Demographic Surveillance System. Studies conducted on the platform build on this foundation, whether by analysing the data directly, sampling from the population register, or nesting new data collection within it. Four core projects make up this record, and access is available to researchers through SEACO's governed data access process.
A defining feature of these projects is linkage: consistent identifiers allow individuals and households to be followed across projects and over time. Researchers can analyse the existing data, nest new studies within the sampling frame, or link their own data collection to the longitudinal record. Selected indicators can also be explored through SEACO 360, the platform's interactive visualisation dashboard, prior to making a formal data request.
A full enumeration of the SEACO population across five sub-districts of Segamat, repeated at approximately five-year intervals. Each round records households and their members: demographic characteristics including ethnicity, religion and language, education and employment, self-reported health status and chronic disease history, and household socio-economic conditions spanning income, housing, assets and indicators of hardship such as food insecurity and forgone medical care. Changes between rounds, including births, deaths, marriages and migration, allow the population to be followed over time. The census provides the sampling frame and population denominator for research conducted on the platform, and with three completed rounds it permits the study of demographic and social change across a decade.
Risk factor surveillance update in South East Asia Community Observatory - Health Round (2013, 2018, 2023)
Brief Summary of Projects:
In-depth health data collected between census rounds. Health Rounds capture self-reported health and health-seeking behaviour, chronic and infectious disease history, non-communicable disease risk factors including smoking, alcohol, diet and physical activity, and physical measurements of height, weight, waist circumference, blood pressure and blood glucose. Recent rounds also include validated instruments on quality of life, psychological distress and depressive symptoms, together with cognitive screening and functional assessment in older adults. Because the same population is revisited in each round, changes in health can be examined over time within individuals, households and communities, rather than through cross-sectional snapshots alone.
Funder: Monash University Malaysia
Mothers and Infants in SEACO Segamat Project (MISS-P)View
Mothers and Infants in SEACO Segamat (MISS) project [Short title: MISS Project]
Brief Summary of Projects:
SEACO's maternal and infant cohort, enrolling mothers and their newborns from the surveillance population. MISS-P documents the pregnancy, birth and early postnatal period: maternal health before and during pregnancy, birth outcomes including gestational age and birthweight, breastfeeding practices, infant growth and health, and maternal mental health and wellbeing assessed with validated instruments. Each mother-infant pair is linked to household and community data held across the platform, situating the perinatal period, a critical window for later-life health, within its longitudinal population context
Although Malaysia has a well-established civil registration system, approximately half of all deaths are not medically certified because they occur outside health facilities, and physical autopsy is often precluded by cultural and religious considerations. Many of these deaths are registered with uninformative causes such as old age. SEACO addresses this gap through verbal autopsy: structured interviews with family members, using a WHO instrument adapted for the Malaysian context in consultation with the Ministry of Health, to establish the probable cause of death. More than 2,000 deaths have been followed up through the programme to date, with interviews conducted by trained data collectors in a manner sensitive to the bereavement practices of the community's different faiths. Each death can be linked to the individual's longitudinal record.
Funder: Monash University Malaysia
SEACO Individual Projects
Researchers use the SEACO infrastructure by securing national and international grants to finance and conduct individual projects within the SEACO cohort. Individual projects are specific research initiatives undertaken to address the priority questions identified by SEACO. These projects may analyse existing data, recruit participants from the population register for more detailed study, or collect new data nested within the surveillance framework and linked to the longitudinal record. All individual projects are conducted through SEACO's governed data access process and under the ethical and community engagement standards that apply across the platform.
To discuss access or bringing a project to the platform, contact the SEACO team at mum.seaco@monash.edu.
Heat Adaptation Through Community-based Approaches and Research at SEACO: Structural and Behavioural Interventions
Duration: 2024 - 2027
Brief Summary of Projects:
This study aims to implement and evaluate the structural and behavioural interventions for heat adaptation to mitigate the health effects of heat at the community level in five SEACO sub-districts [Bekok, Chaah, Gemereh, Jabi, and Sungai Segamat] in the Segamat district. Improving heat literacy and fluency that leads to better heat adaptation behaviours changes early heat stress detection and diagnosis. and painting the roof with UV-resistant white paint to cool it and reduce heat absorption will be the main focus of interventions. Thus, the study findings will help develop a culturally sensitive community- based heat adaptation (CBHA) programme for rural Malaysia.
