The Ministry Of Health Opens Free Smoking Stop Concelling Services, Here's The Link

Illustration of consulting services via cellphone. (Unsplash)

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) provides free counseling and guidance on quitting smoking to the public.

The Director General of Public Health at the Ministry of Health, Maria Endang Sumiwi, said that the free counseling could be through the hotline [phone] or the official Whatsapp number 082125900597.

"Cliens who want to quit smoking can be given counseling and guidance, as well as referrals if they need follow-up. This service makes it easier for anyone who wants to quit smoking, but for certain reasons they have not been able to come to health facilities for consultation," he said in Jakarta, Tuesday, May 30, was confiscated by Antara.

Endang said that the provision of services is based on the potential for smoking which can worsen a person's health, especially in children's growth and development based on research from the University of Indonesia's Center for Social Security Studies (PKJS-UI) in 2018.

The findings from the study show that toddlers living with smokers' parents grew by 1.5 kilograms, more or less than children living with non-smokers' parents. Another thing that is known from the study is that 5.5 percent of toddlers living with smokers' parents have a higher risk of stunting.

He assessed that cigarettes are also one of the obstacles to the decline in Indonesia's stunting rate, which is still 21.6 percent until 2022, difficult to drop according to the provisions provided by the World Health Organization (WHO), which is 20 percent.

He explained that based on one of the Global Adult Tobacco Survey data, adult spending in the family to buy cigarettes per month is estimated at IDR 382 thousand.

Endang suggested that in addition to contributing to preventing stunting through smoking guidance, the money to buy cigarettes was diverted to provide children with a lot of animal protein intake such as eggs to avoid stunting.

"I hope Indonesian families will divert their spending and re-priority their spending not for cigarettes," he said.

The Director General of Disease Prevention and Control of the Ministry of Health, Maxi Rein Rondonuwu, added that services are provided because cigarette consumption and tobacco products have an impact on socio-economic and health.

Data from the 2021 National Socio-Economic Survey (Susenas) states that family spending on cigarette consumption is three times more than spending on protein needs in families, causing cigarette spending to be the second largest in families and three times higher than buying eggs.

Cigarettes are the second largest family expenditure percentage of 11.9 percent, both in urban and rural areas compared to families who eat nutritious foods such as eggs, meat, and chicken.

Bagi masyarakat yang ingin berkonsultasi untuk berhenti merokok, bisa menghubungi layanan Kemenkes melalui Facebook Messenger @p2ptmkemenkesRI, Telegram pada tautan https://t.me/quitina_bot ataupun website resmi Kemenkes https://p2ptm.kemkes.go.id/. Semua layanan dapat diakses secara gratis.