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Nutshell of Health Report |
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Last year, the Ministry of Health conducted a
survey to find out the level of diabetes, high blood pressure and other risk
factors for heart diseases and stroke. |
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The health status of Singaporeans has improved
remarkably since the last survey in 1998. The National Heath Survey 2004
(NHS04), involving 4,168 adults aged between 18-69 years old found the
following: |
- Fewer Singaporeans have diabetes, high blood
pressure and high cholesterol levels.
- Fewer are smoking and more are exercising to
stay trim and fit.
- Obesity is also not on the rise, as the
proportion of Singaporeans who are overweight remains about the same.
- All three major ethnic groups (Chinese,
Malays and Indian) have made good progress in their health status.
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Another encouraging trend is that more people now
know about their health condition instead of being ignorant about them. More
diabetics were found to have good blood sugar control and more hypertensives
had good blood pressure control indicating improved management of these
conditions. |
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The good progress is made possible through a
number of community-based health promotion programmes aimed at preventing the
onset of diseases through lifestyle changes, notably in diet and physical
activity. In Singapore, the National Healthy Lifestyle Programme was started
in 1992. |
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It is a multi-strategy efforts involving community
organizations, workplace and schools and collaborative efforts with food
suppliers to provide healthier food options. The tailor-made intervention
programmes for targeted groups e.g young women, Malay community and working
adults have reaped results. |
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SUMMARY OF SURVEY FINDINGS |
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Diabetes mellitus |
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The prevalence of diabetes among adults fell from
9.0% in 1998 to 8.2% in 2004. A higher proportion of men were diabetic (8.9%)
compared with women (7.6%). As in 1998, Indians had the highest prevalence of
diabetes (15.3%), compared with Malays (11.0%) and Chinese (7.1%). Malay
females have shown the most progress since the 1998 survey with significant
decline in diabetes from 14% in 1998 to 10% in 2004. |
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The survey also found that a higher proportion of
diabetics were aware of their condition. Among the diabetics, the proportion
of those whose condition had not been diagnosed previously fell markedly from
62.1% in 1998 to 49.4% in 2004. |
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High Blood Pressure |
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The high blood pressure (hypertension) level of
adults declined from 21.5% in 1998 to 20.1% in 2004. A higher proportion of
men were hypertensive (24.5%) compared to women (15.9%). |
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Among the ethnic groups, the hypertension level
was highest in the Chinese (20.8%), compared with Malays (18.1%) and Indians
(16.7%). The decline in percentage of Malay females suffering from high blood
pressure was most significant compared to females in other ethnic groups (from
27% in 1998 to 18% in 2004). |
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Among those found to have hypertension, the
proportion of previously-undiagnosed hypertensives declined from 55.0% in 1998
to 39.7% in 2004. |
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Smoking |
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The prevalence of daily cigarette smoking among
adults declined significantly from 15.2% in 1998 to 12.6% in 2004. Daily
cigarette smoking was much more prevalent among men (21.8%) than women (3.5%).
Malay men had the highest prevalence of daily cigarette smoking (29.9%),
compared with Indian men (22.4%) and Chinese men (20.5%). |
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The drop in the percentage of smokers is most
significant among the Malay males (from 43% in 1998 to 30% in 2004) and Indian
males (from 31% in 1998 to 22% in 2004). |
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While the proportion of men who smoke daily
decreased significantly from 27.1% in 1998 to 21.8% in 2004, the proportion of
women smokers remained at about the same level (3.2% in 1998 and 3.5% in
2004). |
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The proportion of young women (18-29 age group)
who were daily smokers rose from 5.2% in 1998 to 6.6% in 2004. In this group,
smoking was more common among Malays (17.0%) compared to 5.1% among Chinese
and 2.4% among Indian young women. |
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Regular Exercise |
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The proportion of adults aged 18 to 69 years who
exercised regularly increased significantly from 16.8% in 1998 to 24.9% in
2004. The improvement is seen in both genders and all three ethnic groups.
Regular physical exercise was most prevalent among Indians (28.8%) compared
with Malays (28.0%) and Chinese (24.0%). It still remains that more men are
exercising regularly compared to women. |
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Obesity |
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The proportion of obese adults aged 18 to 69 years
was 6.9% in 2004. Although the proportion was slightly higher than the 6.0% in
1998, the difference was not statistically significant. |
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Obesity was more prevalent among the females
(7.3%) compared with males (6.4%). Malays had the highest proportion of obese
adults (19.1%) followed by Indians (13.4%) and Chinese (4.2%). |
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Of note is the almost doubling in the proportion
of obese Malay males from 8.8% in 1998 to 16.9% in 2004. Overall, more Malay
and Indian women continue to be obese compared to their male counterparts. |
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Blood cholesterol |
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The proportion of adults aged 18 to 69 years with
high cholesterol decreased significantly from 25.4% in 1998 to 18.7% in 2004.
High cholesterol was most prevalent among Malays (22.8%), compared with
Chinese (18.2%) and Indians (16.9%). |
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What is heartening is that Malay females showed
the most progress as the proportion with high cholesterol dropped from 31% in
1998 to 18% in 2004. |
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Overall, there was a decrease in the prevalence of
low HDL-cholesterol ("good cholesterol") and high LDL-cholesterol ("bad
cholesterol") compared to that in 1998. |
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More..... |
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Source:
Ministry of Health Press Release 24 Apr
2005 |
Findings of National Health Survey 2004
