Public Health Ministry hopes to cut salt, sugar consumption in Thailand by 30% within 2022
The Public Health Ministry’s steering committee on the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases has launched the “Together Fight NCDs” campaign in a bid to cut sugar and salt consumption in Thailand by 30 per cent in the next couple of years.
Dr Kiattiphum Wongrajit, the ministry’s permanent secretary, told the press on Thursday that the aim is to reduce the number of hypertension and diabetes cases, as well as obesity, in the country.
The committee will start off by launching an app, which people can use to assess the health risks they face.
Health promotion campaigns will also be launched in the public and private sector in a bid to boost people’s health at the corporate level.
A survey conducted by the Department of Disease Control (DDC) in 2019 showed that 43.1 per cent of the respondents did not know they had diabetes, 2.7 per cent did not seek treatment, while 30.6 per cent who underwent treatment did little to control their blood sugar levels.
It also found that 44.7 per cent did not know they have hypertension, 6.1 per cent were not seeking treatment and 19.5 per cent who were undergoing treatment did not control their blood pressure.
A DDC report released in 2014 showed that 8.9 per cent or 4.8 million of the Thai population has diabetes, while 24.7 per cent or 13.3 million people suffer from hypertension.