Singapore is second only to the United States in having the highest incidence of diabetes among developed nations according to the Straitstimes.
The International Diabetes Federation estimates a diabetes prevalence of 13.7% for the entire Singapore adult population (including foreigners).
The prevalence of Diabetes in Singapore for citizens and permanent residents aged 18–69 rose from 7.3% in 1992 to 8.6% in 2018.
Despite the Singapore's five-year war done by the different medical institutes against the disease, Diabetes has not made a dent in reducing the disease's prevalence rates.
Worse, according to StraitsTimes, the prevalence of diabetes has shown a slight increase for the period of 2019 to 2020.
Are Singaporeans aware of diabetes? About 400,000 Singaporeans are diabetic and one in three has a lifetime risk of developing the disease.
According to Health Minister Gan Kim Yong one in three is not aware he/she has the disease, and of the rest who do know, one in three has poor control of it.
And if nothing is done, the number of diabetics under age 70 is expected to rise to 670,000 by 2030 and one million by 2050.
Local researchers now have a clue as to why Asians are more prone to Type 2 diabetes than their Western counterparts. Their bodies often do not produce enough insulin, causing sugar to build up in the bloodstream and a host of accompanying health issues, ranging from fatigue to wounds which do not heal and infections.
The prevalence of diabetes in Singapore is costing our country over $1 billion a year to manage and kills thousands of people every year. In April 2016, the Singapore Ministry of Health (MOH) declared War on Diabetes (WoD) to rally a whole-of-nation effort to reduce diabetes burden in the population.
Since then, the MOH promotes a healthy lifestyle to reduce the number of new cases, strengthen early screening and intervention in order to identify the disease among those at risk. It also plans to support better diabetes control programmes to slow progression and reduce associated complications.
Should you think more support on how to fight Diabetes, do not hesitate to contact our Wellnex Concierge through the app.
Sources:
https://health-policy-systems.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12961-021-00678-1
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/slight-increase-in-diabetes-prevalence-despite-5-year-war-against-disease
https://www.healthhub.sg/live-healthy/1273/d-day-for-diabetes
https://idf.org/