‘More and more youths ending up in hospitals’

THE number of youths being hospitalised annually for chronic diseases has doubled in just four years, says the Health Minister.

Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam said an estimated one million (9.2%) Malaysians between the ages of 18 and 40 were diabetic and another 1.7 million (14.7%) in that age bracket suffered from hypertension.

About 33.9% of Malaysian youths also had high blood cholesterol levels, and another 14% were obese, he said.

“For this reason, we are seeing more patients between 18 and 40 years old admitted to hospital for chronic diseases, and the numbers doubled from 2012 to 2016,” Dr Subramaniam told Datin Mastura Mohd Yazid (BN-Kuala Kangsar).

He said a study by the ministry also revealed that the reasons for the increase were, among others, lack of healthy lifestyle habits like proper eating and exercise, as well as smoking.

He noted that on the whole, more than 47% of Malaysians were overweight and of these, 15% were obese.

“It is a major medical issue because this relates to other major diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure and heart attacks.”

The two core problems were that many did not control their consumption or consumed unhealthy meals, and they also did not have enough physical activity due to modern lifestyle habits, he said.

On efforts taken by the ministry to curb the problem, Dr Subramaniam said many programmes were being continuously conducted to engage Malaysians, especially youths, towards more health-conscious lifestyles.