Psychosocial stress, sleep deprivation, and its impact on type II diabetes mellitus: Policies, guidelines, and initiatives from Malaysia

• Main Authors: Samy, Alexander Lourdes, Hairi, Noran Naqiah Mohd, Low, Wah-Yun
• Format: Article
• Published: Wiley 2021
• Subjects: BF Psychology; R Medicine; RA Public aspects of medicine
• Online Access: http://eprints.um.edu.my/35017/
• Institution: Universiti Malaya

Type II Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) is a serious public health issue, affecting the global population, particularly those living in low- and middle-income countries. Worldwide, the prevalence of T2DM ranges between 10.4% and 13.5%, depending on the domiciliary. T2DM negatively affects individuals' quality of life and causes high economic burden due to the increasing cost of treatment and management of the disease. Risk factors associated with T2DMs include aging, lifestyle or behavior, genetics, and important biopsychological aspects, which are psychological stress and sleep deprivation. By understanding the associations of psychological stress and sleep deprivation, which contribute to pathophysiology of T2DM, policies, programs, and guidelines were developed in Malaysia to combat the issue among population at large. This narrative review examines 19 national public health policies, programs, and guidelines from the past 20 years in Malaysia that aimed to mitigate the negative health effects of psychological stress, sleep deprivation, and T2DM, both from the government and non-governmental organizations. Both psychological stress and sleep deprivation works independently or as combined effects in the pathophysiology of T2DM. Besides, in Malaysia, the government, in collaboration with non-governmental organizations, have been developing and implementing policies, programs, and guidelines to combat mental health and T2DM issues, targeted to population at large. Integration of digital technology, such as usage of social media for health promotion and dissemination of public health messages to the community and good governance from government were deemed important in the effective implementation of health policies and guidelines, resulting in better health outcome.