Background: Indonesia is in the midst of a rapid epidemiological transition with a significant ageing population and increasing exposure to risk factors for chronic conditions. This study examines the relative impacts of obesity, tobacco consumption, and physical inactivity, on non-communicable diseases multimorbidity, health service use, catastrophic health expenditure (CHE), and loss in employment productivity in Indonesia.
Methods: Secondary analyses were conducted of cross-sectional data from adults aged 40 years (n=12,081) in the Indonesian Family Life Survey 2014/2015. We used propensity score matching to assess the associations between behavioural risk factors and health service use, CHE, employment productivity, and multimorbidity.
Results: Being obese, overweight and a former tobacco user was associated with a higher number of chronic conditions and multimorbidity (p<0.05). Being a former tobacco user contributed to a higher number of outpatient and inpatient visits as well as CHE incidences and work absenteeism. Physical inactivity relatively increased the number of outpatient visits (30% increase, p<0.05) and work absenteeism (21% increase, P<0.06). Although being underweight was associated with an increased outpatient care utilisation (23% increase, p<0.05), being overweight was negatively associated with CHE incidences (50% decrease, p<0.05).
Conclusion: Combined together, obesity, overweight, physical inactivity and tobacco use contributed to the increased number of NCDs as well as medical costs and productivity loss in Indonesia. Interventions addressing physical and behavioural risk factors are likely to have substantial benefits to individuals and the wider society in Indonesia.