Out of every five Malaysians with diabetes, two have no idea they have it.
That is the finding from NHMS 2023, run by the Ministry of Health's Institute for Public Health on 13,616 respondents. It found that 15.6% of adults, or 3.6 million people, live with diabetes. Two in five of them are walking around with no clue. I am 50 this year, I keep an eye on my own numbers, and even I found that hard to sit with.
The number that actually alarmed me
Here is the one that stopped me mid-scroll. Among adults aged 18 to 29, 84% are unaware that they have diabetes. Not middle-aged uncles who skip their yearly checkup. Not retirees who assume aches are just age. Young adults, in the years most of us treat our bodies like they run on warranty.
Diabetes has always carried this image of a disease that catches up with you in your fifties and sixties, after decades of nasi lemak and late nights. The NHMS data says otherwise. It is already sitting in a huge share of people who have barely started their careers, and almost none of them know it is there.
Why so many people never find out
The same survey found that two in five adults skipped health screening entirely in the past year. No blood test, no check, nothing. Diabetes does not always announce itself loudly. Plenty of people carry it for years with symptoms mild enough to shrug off: needing the toilet more often, feeling thirsty for no clear reason, tiredness that a good night's sleep does not fix, blurry vision, or a small cut that takes forever to heal. The American Diabetes Association lists these as the classic early signs, and the same page is blunt about it: some people have symptoms mild enough that they go unnoticed entirely.
That is the trap. You do not feel sick enough to see a doctor, so you do not, and the condition keeps quietly doing damage in the background.
Even among people who already know they have diabetes, the numbers are not much better. The same NHMS data found that 56% of diagnosed adults do not have their blood sugar under good control, and only 40% own a home glucometer to keep track of it. Knowing is only step one. Managing it is the harder, longer part.
The free test most people never use
Here is what actually changes this. If you or your parents are 40 or older and receive STR with a household income of RM2,500 or below, or you are their registered spouse, PeKa B40 gives you a free screening that includes an HbA1c blood sugar test, a cholesterol panel and a kidney check, at more than 5,275 clinics nationwide. No appointment, no fasting requirement mentioned, just your MyKad. You can check your eligibility online before you even leave the house.
This is not a hypothetical benefit. The Star reported that of the 300,825 people who completed PeKa B40 screening in 2025, 44.37% turned out to have diabetes, high blood pressure or high cholesterol, much of it news to them at the time of testing. That is a real number of people who found out because they showed up for a test that cost them nothing.
I get frustrated when I hear people let a free test go unused. I understand the reasons: work, kids, the fear of finding out something you would rather not know. But "free" almost never comes around twice, and by the time symptoms force the issue, the condition has usually had a head start.
People I know who avoid this exact thing
I know people like this myself, friends who keep pushing the checkup back, or who go quiet and change the subject when health comes up, because some part of them would rather not know. I understand the instinct. Finding out is scary. But not finding out does not make the risk disappear, it just removes your chance to do something about it early, while the fix is smaller.
What You Should Do
Two things, and neither takes much effort.
First, if you or someone in your family qualifies for PeKa B40, check today. It is a two-minute online lookup, and even if you are not sure you qualify, it costs nothing to find out. If you do not qualify, a private screening is still worth the cost of one dinner out, especially if you have not had one in years.
Second, learn the warning signs and take them seriously instead of explaining them away. Frequent urination, constant thirst, unusual fatigue, blurry vision, or a wound that will not heal are not things to wait out. On their own they might mean nothing. Together, or repeated over weeks, they are worth a conversation with a doctor.
The bottom line
Two in five Malaysians with diabetes do not know it, and for people in their twenties that number climbs to more than four in five. The disease is not choosy about age anymore, and it does not wait for a convenient time to show up. A free test exists for a huge number of Malaysian families, and it takes less effort to book than most people spend deciding what to eat for dinner. Take the test. Know your numbers. It is the cheapest insurance you will ever buy.
Figures are from the sources linked above, as published up to September 2026. This article is general information, not medical advice, so speak to a doctor about your own situation.
Kamarul Azwan (k.azwan@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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