KUALA LUMPUR, June 3 – The Ministry of Health recently announced that more than half of the population in Malaysia is overweight or obese, according to the 2023 National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS) Key Findings.
The statistic was posted on X, stating that the prevalence of overweight and obese Malaysians increasing to 54.4%, compared to previous findings in 2019 at 50.1%.
The post also highlighted the risks that came with being overweight or obese which include non-communicable diseases (NCD) such as diabetes, hypertension, high cholestrol and heart diseases.
The 2023 NHMS report found that almost 2.3 million adults in Malaysia live with three NCDs.
Meanwhile, the report revealed that 15.6% or rather or one in six adults in Malaysia have diabetes. Not only that, 84% of adults aged 18 to 29 years old who have the disease did not know they had it.
Furthermore, it was found that 29.2% or one out of three adults in the country have hypertension.
The report also showed that 17.3% of adults in Malaysia are aware of having hypertension while 11.9% do not know that they have it. The most prevalent age group who are unaware of having the NCD are within the age range of 18 to 39 years old.
7.6 million (33%) adults in Malaysia have high cholestrol. According to the NHMS 2023 report, one in two adults with high cholesterol do not know that they have high cholesterol. The report discloses that increasing levels of cholesterol often do not show any symptoms.
In terms of the active lifestyles of Malaysian adults, only one in three adults do not lead an active lifestyle.
An alarming 84% of Malaysian adults are not active in sports, fitness and leisure activities as well as do not walk or cycle from one place to another, also showing that 1 in 2 Malaysian adults lead sedentary lifestyles.
Besides that, the report also revealed 95.1% of adults in Malaysia do not consume an adequate amount of fruit and vegetables daily. Findings showed that only two servings out of the recommended five servings of fruits and vegetables were consumed daily on average by adults.
