Looking back on the outcomes of SDG-3

By Mohammad Tariqur Rahman, Sheila Ramalingam, Anis Yusal Yusoff

Malaysia has shown her commitment to the shared vision of the 2030 United Nations agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for peace and prosperity for all on earth, for now and into the future.

The UN member states accepted the urgent call for action for the 17 SDGs ranging from ending poverty and hunger, good health and wellbeing, quality education, gender equality, clean water and sanitation, affordable clean energy, decent work, economic growth, industrial and innovative infrastructure, responsible consumption and production, climate change, life on land and below water, and peace and justice.

Each goal has its own set of targets, and achievements will be monitored and evaluated at both the state and global levels. The SDG-3 was set to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.

Malaysia has achieved commendable success in a number of targets for SDG-3. For example, Malaysia’s healthcare system yielded excellent outcomes in reducing the maternal mortality ratio by ensuring 100% attendance of skilled professionals for births, maintaining low rates in maternal, neonatal, and under-five mortality rates, and maintaining low incidences of HIV cases and malaria.

Nevertheless, Malaysia is yet to achieve reasonable success in reducing the prevalence and premature mortality from non-communicable diseases (NCDs) through prevention and treatment.

NCDs such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and cancer are leading causes of death globally, as well as in Malaysia. According to an estimation by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for Malaysia, the number of diabetics will reach approximately 2.5 million in 2030 compared to about one million in 2000, which amounts to a more than 160% rise. The percentage of adult males who are overweight and obese has increased from about 30% to above 50% from 1993 to 2019 and the trend is on the rise. The National Health Screening Initiative 2023 found that more than half of Malaysians screened are overweight or obese (53.5% in combination). On World Cancer Day (4 February 2023) cancer researchers estimated approximately 1 in 10 individuals in Malaysia to be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime. Further, 15% of 109,164 medically certified deaths were caused by coronary artery disease in Malaysia.

Taken together, these reports confirm the rise in the prevalence and mortality of NCDs over the years in Malaysia. What is more alarming is that the NCDs are linked to one another. For example, obesity is one of the major risk factors for the development of diabetes. In turn, both obesity and diabetes are major modifiable risk factors that can lead to CVD. Again, diabetes is associated with increased cancer risk.

Apart from the genetic predisposition, NCDs eventuate largely because of our dietary and lifestyle practices. This includes sugar consumption, physical inactivity, imbalanced food habits, and an overall imbalance in the ratio of calorie intake and exhaustion. Hence, addressing these dietary and lifestyle deterrents, and choosing good health practices is a major way forward to curb the aggression of NCDs.

At an individual level, every Malaysian can make a valiant effort to change common habits of consuming excessive sugar, engaging in physical activity, and avoiding irregular and insufficient sleep cycles. Furthermore, avoiding habits like smoking and drinking (alcohol) would help to reduce the chances of CVD and cancers.

At the institutional level, employers in general need to recognize the need for work-life balance for the employees. As a means to achieve work -life balance, a policy for official communications until a cut-off time on weekdays, and no communications during weekends and holidays could help to reduce the stress and anxiety of employees.

Respect and provision for personal and family time could benefit the mental health of the employees which in turn would reflect in their physical health and productivity at work. Having a mental health counselling division as part of the human resources department to deal with work-related stress would benefit too. Provision for a 30-minute light group physical exercise at a convenient time during work could encourage the employees to adopt a healthier lifestyle.

At the social and community level, there could be more incentives given for the organising of sporting and social events such as marathons, hiking, cycling, bazaars, and cultural exhibitions that would further add to the culture of promoting a healthy physical and mental lifestyle.

In addition, Government authorities, notably the Ministry of Health, must create more awareness about the hidden dangers of NCDs. More educational advertisements on health in general, and NCDs in particular, need to be created for content not only in traditional media such as newspapers and news portals on radio and television, but also in popular social media outlets such as TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube as this is the language of the younger generation.

The government might consider taking additional preventive measures such as imposing a higher tax on items that are on the list of risk factors of NCDs such as junk food, sugar, cigarettes, and alcohol.

Indeed, preventing lifestyle diseases by instilling awareness and creating good and healthy lifestyle practices is easier said than done. However, at the institutional and Governmental policy level, there is a lot more that could be done to tame the rising trend of NCDs.

The world has seen tremendous success in medical biotechnology such as producing new vaccines in a couple of months to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. By engaging in global leadership and awareness, Malaysia was also successful in curbing the unprecedented pandemic. Despite the differences in nature and progression of NCDs and COVID-19, engaging global leadership and awareness shares the same path in curbing NCDs as it was for COVID19.

Prof. Dr. Mohammad Tariqur Rahman is the Associate Dean (continuing education) at the Faculty of Dentistry, Universiti Malaya (UM). Dr Sheila Ramalingam is a senior lecturer at UM’s Faculty of Law. Datuk Dr Anis Yusal Yusoff is the Executive Director of The International Institute of Public Policy and Management (INPUMA) of UM and the Director of the Centre for Leadership and Professional Development (UM LEAD).