National Screening Strategy Vital To Check Cardio-renal-metabolic Disease Spread - NCSM

KUALA LUMPUR, June 30 (Bernama) -- The National Cancer Society Malaysia (NCSM) has called for an urgent national co-screening strategy to strengthen the prevention, detection and management of cardio-renal-metabolic (CRM) diseases among Malaysians.

The incidence of CRM or heart and kidney disease and metabolic conditions like diabetes is rising, with nearly nine out of 10 Individuals found to have two or more cardio-renal-metabolic risk factors, NCSM said in a statement today.

These conditions frequently coexist, share common risk factors and accelerate one another's progression.

In making the call, NCSM said a project which screened 5,000 individuals from underserved communities last year in the Klang Valley revealed a significant burden of interconnected cardiovascular, kidney and metabolic diseases.

“This highlights the need for a more integrated healthcare approach,” NCSM said, highlighting policy recommendations and the launch of policy briefs for a national screening strategy.

The findings, based on the NCSM-Boehringer Ingelheim Saring@Komuniti Project with support from the Ministry of Health, showed that 41.3 per cent of participants were obese, 28.8 per cent were overweight, 34.5 per cent had pre-diabetes, and 35.1 per cent had diabetes, indicating a high hidden burden of blood sugar problems.

Almost all participants (97.8 per cent) had at least one CRM risk factor.

NCSM said the launch of the policy briefs recommending specific actions comes at a time when Malaysia continues to face rising rates of chronic disease.

For instance, chronic kidney disease prevalence increased from 9.1 per cent in 2011 to 15.5 per cent in 2019, while the number of Malaysians requiring dialysis has more than tripled over the past two decades.

NCSM said that healthcare experts warn that without earlier detection and coordinated intervention, the burden on patients and the healthcare system will continue to grow.

The policy briefs identify two key priorities for national action: expanding integrated co-screening to detect interconnected diseases earlier and strengthening the care continuum to ensure individuals move successfully from screening to diagnosis, treatment and long-term disease management.

Current healthcare approaches often focus on individual diseases in isolation, resulting in missed opportunities to identify overlapping risks.

At the same time, fragmented referral pathways, inconsistent follow-up systems and barriers to continuity of care could prevent patients from receiving timely intervention after an abnormal screening result.

To address these challenges, the policy briefs recommend scaling up CRM co-screening programmes nationwide, embedding standardised CRM risk assessments into routine health checks, and strengthening referral and follow-up mechanisms.

“Malaysia has an opportunity to shift from managing individual diseases separately to addressing cardiovascular, kidney and metabolic health as a connected continuum.

“Early detection must be matched by coordinated follow-up and long-term care if we are to improve outcomes and reduce the growing burden of chronic disease," said Dr Murallitharan Munisamy, Managing Director of NCSM was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, according to Cheong Yee Kok, General Manager and Head of Human Pharma at Boehringer Ingelheim Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia, “Cardiovascular, kidney, and metabolic conditions are closely interconnected, sharing common risk factors and amplifying each other’s impact.”

Boehringer Ingelheim is a biopharmaceutical company active in both human and animal health.

-- BERNAMA