KUALA LUMPUR: A total of 252,767 individuals have been screened for non-communicable diseases (NCD) nationwide as of Thursday (Sept 29), as recorded in the MySejahtera app.

Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin (pic) said of the total number who did screenings, 173,722 individuals were aged 40 and above with 47.34% of them confirmed to have NCD; 46.34% had NCD risk factors and 6.31% were healthy.

He said the remaining 79,045 individuals were below the age of 40 and the results found that 31.48% of them were confirmed to have NCD; 54.58% had NCD risk factors and 13.91% were healthy.

Those who were found to be at risk were referred to health clinics to undergo further examination to confirm their health status, he said, adding that they were subsequently given advice on how to control risk factors and diseases they may have.

"NCDs are still a major disease burden in Malaysia and almost half of those with NCDs never know their health status or unaware they have it until it reaches a severe stage," he said in a statement on Friday (Sept 29).

He urged those aged above 40 with NCD risk factors and who have never done a health screening before or did it a long time ago to immediately book an appointment in the MySejahtera app at nearby health facilities.

Khairy said the MySejahtera application had been updated with various new functions to support the implementation of the National Health Screening Initiative (NHSI), which is one of the main activities under Thrust 3 of Agenda Nasional Malaysia Sihat (ANMS) which is a long-term plan to guide the nation towards making healthy living a culture as it steers out of the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to him, MySejahtera users can now access their health information through the 'Health Record' function on the application after undergoing a health screening at a government health facility.

He said the function would be extended to all registered private facilities, including screening under the PeKaB40 and Socso programmes.

The appointment for health screening could also be made through the Appointment function in MySejahtera, in addition to using the existing appointment system at health facilities, he added.

NHSI with the tagline 'Jom Saring!' was implemented through collaboration with the Health Ministry's strategic partners, including government agencies, the private sector and non-governmental organisations.

Among the screening programmes under NHSI are health screening services at almost all the Health Ministry's health facilities, the Health Care Scheme for the B40 Group (PeKa B40) and the Socso Health Screening Package.

According to Khairy, the health screening under the PeKa B40 programme, which offers free health screenings, recorded a total of 724,321 screenings since its launch in 2019 and a total of 170,987 people were screened this year.

"As for the Socso Health Screening Package, almost 9,500 workers took advantage of the health screening vouchers provided until Sept 22," he said. – Bernama