Aquaculture is seen as an essential food-producing sector for improving global food security and nutrition indices. This cross-sectional study examined the health complaints and mental health status of aquaculture workers, as well as their relationship with quality of life, with respect to the brackish water and freshwater aquaculture cultivation system in Penang, Malaysia. The workers’ health complaints were collected, and mental health status was evaluated as means of depression, anxiety, stress and self-esteem. Self-perceived quality of life was assessed using a structured questionnaire. This study involved the participation of 88 brackish water (84.6%) and 16 freshwater (15.4%) aquaculture workers. A total of 72.7% of the brackish water aquaculture workers were aged beyond 50 years old and had worked within five years (77.3%) in the aquaculture industry. Both brackish water and freshwater cultivation workers were confronted with fatigue, pain and insomnia. Up to 48%, 40.4%, 26% and 24% of them were facing depression, anxiety, stress and low self-esteem, respectively. A total of 3.4% of the brackish water aquaculture workers were having bad quality of life. The complaints of neck/shoulder/arm pain (F = 13.963; p < 0.001), back pain (F = 10.974; p < 0.01), hand/wrist pain (F = 8.041; p < 0.01), knee/hip pain (F = 12.910; p < 0.01) and insomnia (F = 10.936; p < 0.01) were correlated with bad quality of life among the workers. For mental health status, self-esteem (F = 4.157; p < 0.05) was found to be negatively correlated with quality of life scores. The results outlined the concerning level of health complaints and psychological distress among the aquaculture workers. The study emphasized the importance of developing an appropriate occupational health strategy in the aquaculture industry. Longitudinal investigations aimed to explore the effects of psychological distress on employment productivity among the high-risk workers are warranted.

Aquaculture has been the world's fastest-growing food production sector for the last two decades. Collectively, the local aquaculture sector produced 391,000 tonnes of cultivated organisms, with an economic value of over USD 700 million, accounted about 0.2 percent of Malaysia's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2019 (Azra et al., 2021). Penang's aquaculture production gained the highest wholesale revenue in Malaysia. Brackish water ponds and cages constitute the majority of Penang's aquaculture and reported the highest number of culturists. Fisheries from brackish water have been contributing nearly 50% of the total fish production, and about 69% of its value in Penang (Penang Institute, 2020). Of these, sea bass and snapper recorded the highest production, followed by shrimp, cockle and other brackish water cages species, such as hybrid grouper and mackerel. Technology and practice adoption research has recently gained popularity in the area of aquaculture studies (Joffre et al., 2020). A variety of factors have contributed to the low output. A lack of knowledge about recommended fish farming practices is one of the socioeconomic characteristics of fish farmers and non-adoption (Muddassir et al., 2016). Lack of livelihood asset, either physical or human assets particularly in terms of knowledge, access to information, and experience, and aspects of sustainability in terms of environmental conservation. The issue of production sustainability, employment of improved technology, concept of eco-friendly, and food safety regulations are known challenges for the aquaculture industry. Furthermore, constraints such as the education and knowledge, human greed, irresponsible, short-sighted activities, small farm size and investment, uprising cost of production and weak legislation and enforcement are generally common among the aquaculture farmers (Othman, 2010). With the aforementioned, this research is aimed to access extension and advisory services, adoption of aquaculture technology, and determine the barriers that threatened the sustainability of the aquaculture industry. Keywords: Adoption; Aquaculture; Barriers; Sustainable; Technology