KUALA LUMPUR: Collaboration between the Health Ministry and related government agencies are needed to tackle health issues among youth, says Dr Zaliha Mustafa.
The Health Minister said this included working with the Education Ministry to tackle said issues.
“For example, obesity begins in youth and carries over into adulthood. The predisposing factors happen at a young age, hence we need collaborative programmes to ensure our youth and population are healthy,” she said.
Speaking at a press conference after launching the Madani Afiat programme here on Sunday (July 9), Dr Zaliha said that there is a higher prevalence of non-communicable diseases among those aged 40 and below.
“This is alarming for the Ministry. We have to take a serious look at promotive healthcare to reduce hospital admissions,” she added.
Dr Zaliha was responding to a question on her recent statement that four in five adolescents are physically inactive, with two in three adolescents leading predominantly sedentary lifestyles.
On this, she said the statistics are from the National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS) 2022 and added that it shows a rising prevalence of obesity, physical inactivity, sedentary behaviour, poor dietary choices and excessive consumption of carbonated soft drinks and fast food among Malaysian adolescents aged 13 to 17 years.
The NHMS 2022 also showed that four in five adolescents do not consume an adequate amount of fruits and vegetables.
