PETALING JAYA: Unhealthy diet and lifestyle choices along with a lower health literacy have put Malaysians at higher risk of noncommunicable diseases , according to experts.Cancer is also on the rise and is expected to cause significant loss to quality of life and quantity of lives,” said Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia health economics and public health specialist Prof Dr Sharifa Ezat Wan Puteh.
“With insufficient resources and budget, healthcare is moving to privatisation and precision medicine. “The world economy, the wars and increase of violence in the world....all of these lead to depression. All of these lead to people having a very poor image of the future,” she said.She added that the focus should be on prevention, rebuilding families, learning how to manage mental health and not looking at it as a taboo as well as placing more importance on fun and harnessing practical life skills.
At the same time, Dr Kuljit also pointed out that healthcare is an expensive affair, as the government spends billions annually to upkeep public hospitals while private hospitals have low-profit margins. Federation of Private Medical Practitioners Association Malaysia president Dr Shanmuganathan Ganeson said the findings are reflective of the community, which is currently in survival mode in terms of finances.