Reward Malaysians who practise healthy lifestyles, say health advocates

PETALING JAYA: Health advocates have suggested that Putrajaya reward Malaysians who practise healthier lifestyles with incentives like grocery subsidies and public transport discounts.

World Health Organization (WHO) patient advocate Manvir Victor said these rewards can be distributed based on achieving fitness targets, such as walking 10,000 steps a day, for example.

“For instance, if you walk 10,000 steps a day, you could stand to receive a certain amount in subsidies for groceries,” he said at a forum organised by the health think tank Galen Centre for Health and Social Policy.

This, he said, would encourage Malaysians to walk more, stay active and age well.

Galen Centre CEO Azrul Khalib said healthier choices often remained financially out of reach for lower-income households, but rewarding those with healthier lifestyles could help address this.

“Healthy food is frequently more expensive than unhealthy food. We should be looking at subsidising fruits and vegetables and rewarding people who adopt healthier lifestyles (so they can afford to purchase healthier food),” he said.

He said incentives linked to physical activity could encourage healthier behaviour while reducing long-term healthcare costs.

For example, those who complete designated exercises, such as squats at LRT or MRT stations, could be rewarded with grocery vouchers or public transport discounts, he added.

Victor, who chairs Patients for Patient Safety Malaysia, said the country could no longer afford to focus primarily on treating diseases after they develop, as Malaysia is an ageing society and moving towards becoming an aged nation by 2048.

He pointed out that the government was already spending over RM3.3 billion annually to treat end-stage kidney disease, with this amount expected to double by 2040.

“Healthcare should not only begin when someone is sick. Small interventions can make a big difference. That is health promotion,” Victor said.

One-stop electronic medical data

Taman Medan assemblyman Dr Afif Bahardin called for the creation of a centralised electronic medical records system, saying fragmented healthcare data hampers efforts to identify high-risk groups and design targeted interventions.

“We need to know who has diabetes, high cholesterol, kidney disease or obesity. Once we have that information, we can develop preventive programmes that are more effective,” he said.

According to Afif, Malaysia had already demonstrated the power of data-driven public health responses during the Covid-19 pandemic, with districts with outbreaks identified as red zones to help curb further spread of the virus.

“Why not identify diabetes hotspots or areas with high obesity rates and intervene earlier?” If records are centralised, patients do not need to repeat the same tests every time they visit a different facility,” he said.

Victor agreed with Afif, saying a centralised database would help the health ministry identify non-communicable diseases (NCD) according to states.

For instance, he said, Kelantan has one of the highest prevalence of diabetes, and the government could roll out targeted preventive measures there to reduce cases.