MIRI: The rising number of diabetes patients is worrying and must not be ignored as it is affecting the socioeconomic development of the country.
In stating this, Minister of Local Government and Housing Datuk Dr Sim Kui Hian said Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) remains the major non-communicable disease in the country and it has become increasingly problematic concurrently with cardiovascular conditions such as heart disease, hypertension and stroke.
“To date, there are a total of 657,839 patients enrolled in National Diabetes Registry (NDR), with 653,326 of them diagnosed with T2DM. Based on the statistics, the prevalence of diabetes mellitus in 2015 was 17.5 per cent which was higher than in 2011 with 15.2 per cent, while the prevalence of diabetes in 2006 was 11.6 per cent.
“Statistically, prevalence of diabetes as projected will approach 23.4 per cent in 2020 and is expected to rise to 31.3 per cent in 2025,” said Dr Sim in his speech read out by Assistant Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture Datuk Lee Kim Shin at the launching of the Diabetes ‘We Care 4.0’ gala dinner cum charity concert last Saturday.
Diabetes, stressed Dr Sim, is costly as it is estimated to account for 16 per cent of national health care budget.
“This means that Malaysia is placed among top 10 countries in the world in terms of percentage of health care budget spent on diabetes. For example, the estimated cost of diabetes related health care in the country is about RM2.4 billion.
“Based on the statistics, 73 per cent of diabetes related health care costs are for hospitalisation and ambulatory care, as a result of poor blood sugar control; whilst only seven per cent of total diabetes related health care cost is spent on anti-diabetic drugs. As for proportional mortality in Malaysia, data in 2014 shows 73 per cent of total death is contributed by non-communicable diseases, of which 79 per cent is contributed by cardiovascular disease that is strongly associated with diabetes mellitus.”
Dr Sim stressed that it is of utmost importance to improve diabetes care for patients in the country, to focus on prevention and early diagnosis and good control of the disease.
“It is hoped that by improving the health care services with additional benefit of delivering cost effective health care on diabetes, we can improve the survival rate of our patients,” he said.
The gala dinner which was organised by Diabetes Malaysia, Miri branch (DMMB) was attended by more than 600 people including mayor Adam Yii, Piasau assemblyman Datuk Sebastian Ting, Supt Law Poh Kiong, DMMB chairwoman Ting Chiew Moi, Diabetes Malaysia national vice president Jong Koi Chong, philanthropist Datuk James Ling Suk Kiong and sponsors.