PETALING JAYA: Body mass index (BMI) screenings in clinics and schools are identifying overweight Malaysian children, but the lack of structured follow-up and treatment means many cases go unmanaged.
Health experts are calling for the development of a national paediatric obesity care pathway.
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Dr Moy Foong Ming of Universiti Malaya said BMI screenings are routinely conducted, but there is no automatic referral system for children above the 95th percentile.
“Follow-up often depends on the initiative of individual clinicians, so many overweight children are identified but not actively managed,” she said when contacted yesterday.
Moy proposed a national care pathway that includes automatic referrals, multidisciplinary teams at clinics or hospitals, family-based behavioural therapy, and specialised training for primary care providers.
She also recommended broader policy reforms such as mandatory front-of-pack warning labels, expanding the sugar-sweetened beverage tax to include sweetened milk and energy drinks, and banning digital and influencer marketing of unhealthy foods to children.
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Nutrition Society of Malaysia president Dr Tee E Siong said that adult obesity is already high nationwide, with prevalence at 54.5%, and warned that projections suggest more than 680,000 children could develop early signs of hypertension and cardiovascular conditions by 2040.
“If these conditions are not treated early, the adult disease burden will rise even further,” he added.
Senior consultant paediatrician and adolescent medicine specialist Prof Dr N. Thiyagar said doctors are already seeing the consequences.
“I hardly saw children with type 2 diabetes 25 years ago. In the past 15 years, I’ve seen at least one or two teenagers diagnosed each year,” he said, adding that some also suffer from hypertension and hyperlipidaemia.
He warned that obese children face higher risks of diabetes, high cholesterol, hypertension and heart disease later in life, while teenage girls with obesity are also at greater risk of early-onset polycystic ovarian syndrome.
Dr Thiyagar said prevention must begin at home, with parents shaping healthy habits, ensuring adequate sleep and avoiding overly restrictive or permissive feeding patterns.
Schools should enforce healthy canteen policies, and healthcare providers should routinely monitor children’s height and weight, and use motivational interviewing techniques to encourage behaviour change among teenagers.
