KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 16 — Employees in the country have been urged to take advantage of the free health screening programme offered by the Social Security Organisation (Socso) to ensure that they are always in good health.
Human Resource Minister Datuk Seri M. Saravanan said the implementation of the Movement Control Order and the work-from-home policy during the Covid-19 pandemic period has limited sports and recreational activities, thus affecting the fitness level of employees.
He said that according to Socso’s statistics in 2021, 16,906 contributors became disabled or died due to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as high blood pressure, heart disease or diabetes.
“In addition, analysis from Socso’s Health Screening Programme (HSP) also found that 60.9 per cent of workers have high cholesterol levels, 35.2 per cent have obesity problems, 27.3 per cent have high blood pressure and 9.5 per cent of workers have diabetes.
“Obesity, if not controlled, can lead to various other serious health problems,” he said in his speech at the Socso’s Run & Ride 2022 programme at Dataran DBKL here.
His text of speech was read out by Socso chairman Datuk Seri Subahan Kamal.
The annual event, held since 2015, returned after a two-year hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic and attracted about 3,000 participants. — Bernama
