World Obesity Day, observed annually on March 4 is a unified day to increase the awareness of and action on obesity.
This year, the theme “Everybody Needs to Act” calls for an urgent effort to drive greater action and partnership to improve the lives of people at risk and living with obesity, globally and in Malaysia.
Obesity is one of the biggest public health challenges in Malaysia, which has the highest rates of adult obesity in Southeast Asia.
According to the 2019 National Health and Morbidity Survey, 50.1% of the adult population in Malaysia were overweight (30.4%) or obese (19.7%).
While, the prevalence of childhood obesity is also increasing at an alarming rate in Malaysia, with 29.8% of children 5 to 17 years of age being overweight (15.0%) or obese (14.8%).
Obesity not only impacts the health of individuals and communities but also has far-reaching complications for healthcare systems and the economy.
Addressing obesity in Malaysia is a delicate and daunting task. It is a topic that almost everyone knows of and recognize, but many are more comfortable to either deny or ignore it.
Prof Dr Rohana Abdul Ghani, a professor of medicine and consultant endocrinologist at the Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Teknologi MARA said many complexities in healthcare delivery in terms of the care and management of people with obesity still need to be further addressed.
“The current clinical management of obesity in Malaysia is insufficient to tackle the multifaceted nature of obesity. When people with obesity take the necessary steps to access care, they are offered a four-step cycle of therapy, which includes diet and exercise, medication, non-invasive treatment and surgery.
“However, there is a limited number of public hospitals that offer such obesity-related services, and as a result, patients in many communities lack the integrated care needed to manage obesity and must access different touchpoints, prolonging their access to effective care,” she explained.
Dr Rohana is also the chairperson of the Obesity Policy Engagement Network in Malaysia (MY OPEN), a platform that brings together national experts and other thought leaders in the field of obesity to improve obesity care.
She added that healthcare professionals in primary care services often do not treat obesity. Rather they treat other chronic conditions related to obesity, such as diabetes and hypertension. This could have resulted not from a lack of knowledge but from the lack of prioritization of obesity as a disease, inadequate training, and limitations in time, as well as resources.
Dr Rohana said the way forward is to have preventive measures in place focusing not just on nutrition but also policies designed to ensure effective management for people with obesity.
“We need to acknowledge that obesity is not just a lifestyle disorder, which the patient brought upon him or herself, but an actual disease that requires attention and proper management.
“Obesity requires urgent action and the time to act is now. MY OPEN is calling for widespread recognition of obesity as a chronic disease at the government, clinical and public level. This will help to ensure that the responsibility of managing obesity moves from the individual to a collective level. We believe that a systemic and sustained approach is needed to address the complex burden of obesity,” she added.
