These efforts focus on conditioned risk factors and social determinants' prevention, starting from being overweight to obesity, Director of Non-Communicable Diseases Prevention and Control at the Ministry Eva Susanti stated here, Sunday.
"Obesity can be prevented, but it requires the participation and empowerment of the public, as the key factor, because health is the responsibility of every individual and supported by government policies," she noted.
These efforts comprise the issuance of Presidential Instruction No. 1 of 2017 on Healthy Living Community Movement (Germas) and Minister of Health Regulation No. 30 of 2013 on sugar, salt, and fat content information inclusion as well as health message for processed and instant foods.
Moreover, the ministry holds the obesity mitigation program at public health centers (puskesmas) and clinics, Fight Against Obesity Movement (Gentas), and obesity mitigation development for school children.
Other efforts involve encouraging people's independence to lead a healthy lifestyle by managing eating patterns and diligently conducting physical activities. Steps, such as implementation of the Smoke-Free Area (KTR) policy and disease early detection, are also being taken.
"Obesity is often not followed by signs and symptoms of diseases. Thus, with routine examination, diseases can be identified early. Please medicate if obesity already requires medical actions," Susanti noted.
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Obesity is a global issue that affects two billion people in the world and threatens public health, including in Indonesia, she pointed out.
"The prevalence of global obesity is higher for women as compared to men, and most obese people reside in developing countries," she stated.
In 2030, it was estimated that one out of five women and one out of seven men will live with obesity. This figure is equal to over one billion in the entire world.
The ministry reported that Indonesia, as a developing country, contributed 21.8 percent of the obesity cases worldwide in 2018. This figure had risen from the previous decade, with only 10.5 percent.
In addition to affecting the rise in non-communicable diseases, obesity causes economic losses due to the cost of treating diseases that accompanied obesity, such as diabetes mellitus, heart disease, cancer, hypertension, and other metabolic and non-metabolic diseases.
According to Susanti, obesity contributes to death due to cardiovascular disease by 5.87 percent from the total number of deaths and diabetes and kidney diseases, 1.84 percent, from the total number of deaths.
"Education to the public is very necessary to remind them of the impacts and dangers of obesity and the importance of prevention and control efforts," she stated.
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Translator: Andi Firdaus, Fadhli Ruhman
Editor: Yuni Arisandy Sinaga
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