Prevention is better than cure

A live webinar titled “Prevention is better than cure” was held in the Chinese language through Zoom meeting and was broadcasted via Facebook live on 18 February 2021. It was organised by the Centre for Corporate and Community Development (CCCD). More than 150 participants took part in the webinar.

CCCD Assistant Manager Kaarthic Muthukutty Chozhan started by welcoming the speaker, namely Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences Dr Ng Foong Leng to discuss and share her studies as well as experiences and knowledge on ways to protect our health from the invasion of viruses and diseases.

Dr Ng (top right) explaining the main topics of the webinar

Dr Ng started her presentation by sharing five main points which included The Population of Malaysian in 2020, The Health Issues of the Malaysian, Prevention is Better Than Cure/ Traditional Chinese Medicine/ The Concept of Preventive Treatment of Diseases, Health Content and conclusion.

In the first and second subtopics of the presentation, namely “The Population of Malaysian in 2020” and “The Health Issues or Status of the Malaysian”, she utilised graphs and charts to provide a better understanding for the participants.

The Bar Graph and Pie Chart displaying the population of Malaysian in 2020

According to the statistic, Malaysia has approximately 32.7 million populations in 2020, where 29.7 million are Malaysians and three million are non-Malaysian. Hence, the population growth rate reported for the year 2020 was 0.4 per cent. Moreover, the population of elder citizen, within 60 years old and above, was recorded as 3.4 million in 2019 and 3.5 million in 2020, which is 10.3 per cent and 10.7 per cent respectively. In addition, Dr Ng emphasised that we need to focus on our health issues and instil the concept of health care from young.

The Bar Graph showing the causes of death in Malaysia

Based on the statistic that shows the causes of death in Malaysia, the five key reasons of death are Ischaemic heart disease, Pneumonia, Cerebrovascular diseases, Transport accident, and Malignant Neoplasm of trachea, bronchus and lung. Among the five main reasons that harm the lives of humans, Ischaemic heart disease was placed at the top; it killed 16,325 individuals in Malaysia in 2020. The data from the statistic showed that 4,995 females (30.6%) and 11,330 males (69.4%) died due to Ischaemic heart disease.

Next, Dr Ng presented the statistic of the National Health and Morbidity Survey in 2019 under the second subtopic and mentioned that heart diseases and cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) were caused by three important health issues, namely diabetes, hypertension and high cholesterol. Dr Ng said, “Most of the Malaysians are facing these three health issues. It could either harm their health or lead to death.” Based on the National Health and Morbidity Survey statistic in 2019, one in five adults has diabetes in Malaysia; 3.9 million were within the age of 18 and above. Four out of ten Malaysians, in other words, eight million Malaysians have high cholesterol; the cholesterol level among female individuals was higher than the male individuals. As for the third one, three out of ten people in Malaysia, which is 6.4 million, have hypertension. This illness mainly targets male individuals who are below the age of 30 compared to female individuals.

In addition, she also mentioned another issue that needs to be taken care of which is obesity as it will lead to the other three diseases. Dr Ng said, “Malaysians also need to focus on the matter of depression that mainly occurs among adults. Almost half a million in Malaysia (2.3%) are facing this problem.”

Speaking from the perspective of Chinese Medicine, Dr Ng said, “Health care and preventive treatments endorse the concept ‘prevention is better than cure’. Both concepts or terms have significant relationship and meaning between one another.”

Health awareness among Malaysian adults

She also pointed out that Malaysian adults lack knowledge and awareness of health education. Dr Ng also provided an explanation on health care from the Chinese Medicine perspective as well as its method and solution in educating and sustaining our health care.

Health care from the perspective of Chinese Medicine

Before calling off the webinar, Dr Ng held a Q&A session to cover the questions and doubts of the participants. Dr Ng also answered questions that were posted at the chatbox and solved the doubts of the participants.