KUALA LUMPUR: A family medicine specialist has reiterated the call for Malaysians to undergo health screening early to detect risks so that treatment can be started earlier to control chronic diseases better and avoid complications.
Dr Beh Hooi Chin, from the University Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC), cited how screening for conditions such as diabetes and high cholesterol which are increasingly prevalent in Malaysia could be initiated as early as 18 years old.
This is especially for those who are having risk factors such as being overweight or obese, physically inactive, both parents or siblings having hypertension, diabetes, heart disease and other cardiovascular diseases.
Besides doing it early, the frequency for screening might change based on these personal risk factors, she said when touching on the topic “Primary Healthcare: Screening for Chronic Diseases,” during The Brief programme aired over Bernama TV recently.
“The maxim that prevention – or rather screening – is better than cure holds true as there are many types of chronic diseases affecting the Malaysian populace,” she said.
Dr Beh told Bernama that most Malaysians should go to nearby government health clinics to be assessed and screened while those who could afford it could go to private clinics and private hospitals.
Besides diabetes, hypertension and dyslipidaemia (high cholesterol), she listed other conditions such as stroke, heart disease, overweight or obesity, depression, osteoporosis, breast and cervical cancer, prostrate problems and anaemia.
“By screening for those diseases early, we may help prevent or delay complications that could arise from these diseases,” she added.
According to National Health and Morbidity Survey 2019 (NHMS 2019), the highest prevalence of non-communicable disease was being overweight or obese whereby one in two adults in Malaysia were overweight or obese.
This was followed by high cholesterol where four in 10 people in Malaysia have raised total cholesterol levels.
Also, three in 10 or 6.4 million people in Malaysia were diagnosed with hypertension while one in five adults or about 3.9 million people aged 18 and above in Malayisa have been diagnosed with diabetes.
“Screenings are medical tests or well known as investigations that we use to check for diseases or other health conditions before any signs and symptoms occur,” Dr Beh said.
“Screenings help to find problems early when they may be easier to be treated and getting recommended screening is one of the important things you can do for your health.”
For the elderly, guidelines recommend screening for osteoporosis at the age of 65 for female and 70 for male but screening could start earlier depending on the risk factors.
Turning to depression, she said the condition was not always obvious as some people might purposely hide the symptoms from people around them, concealing the problem so well until they themselves might hardly recognise it.
Therefore, screening for depression is opportunistic and purposive whenever an individual presents him or herself to a health care centre.
For cardiovascular conditions, Dr Beh said that screening should start at age 40 by checking blood sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol as well as a full assessment done prior to screening which should be individualised.
