KUALA LUMPUR: There is a serious need for dieticians in the country due to the worrying increase in diseases, especially non-communicable diseases (NCDs)
Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad according to the International Confederation of Dietetics Association (2016), Malaysia only had two dieticians for every 100, 000 people compared to other Asian Pacific countries such as Hong Kong (3/100,000), Korea(6/100,000), New Zealand (12/100,000), Taiwan (15/100,000) and Japan (39/100,000).
“There is a grave need for dieticians,“ he said.
Speaking at the 2nd Dieticians Quality & Research convention here today, he said there was also a serious need for dieticians in health clinics.
“Data from the Disease Control Department in 2018 showed the detection of 43,203 new cases of Type-2 Diabetes Mellitus while the total number of cases of diabetes treated up to May was 859, 642,“ he said.
Dzulkefly said 87.8% (754, 867) of patients out of the 859,642 cases received their treatments at health clinics and only 4.9% (37,143) received Medical Nutrition Therapy consultation.
“We only produce about 250 dieticians a year from government institutions with an enrolment of 30 to 40 students a year currently,“ he said, adding that the ministry will work to improve the numbers each year.
Dzulkefly said the government spent about RM 40,000 per person with NCD a year and the average total expenditure on treating Malaysians with NCD’s is RM2.18 billion a year in government hospitals alone.
He said that Malaysians had an average life span of 75 years with men having the average of 73 years and women the average of 79 years.
“Malaysians die prematurely due to NCD’s. It is my challenge to tackle this situation,“ he said adding that this was is one of the reasons why his ministry enforced the smoking ban at eateries and restaurants.
