Update on the War on Diabetes

Mr Patrick Tay Teck Guan 

MP for West Coast GRC

Question No. 2933

To ask the Minister for Health whether he can provide an update on the war against diabetes and how successful has the Ministry been in the preventive, reactive and research programmes in diabetes prevention and management since the programme began.

Oral Answer

1        The War on Diabetes was launched in 2016 to mobilise the whole nation to tackle diabetes. Since then, we have made encouraging progress across prevention, early detection and management of the disease, but much more remains to be done.

Prevention

2        For more effective prevention, we need to tackle risk factors such as unhealthy diets and inactive lifestyles. The Health Promotion Board (HPB) has been working with industry partners to expand the coverage of its Healthier Choice Symbol (HCS) Programme and the Healthier Dining Programme (HDP). There are currently more than 3,500 HCS products available across 100 food categories and their sales have been growing at 9% annually. As for the HDP, with more partners coming onboard, 50% of the stalls across all hawker centres and coffee shops now have at least one healthier option on their menu.

3        To encourage food manufacturers to innovate and reformulate to produce healthier alternatives, HPB has extended the Healthier Ingredient Development Scheme (HIDS) in 2018 to three additional product categories, namely sugar-sweetened beverages, desserts and sauces. Since then, eleven suppliers have tapped on the grant to produce 62 lower sugar products, helping to improve the availability of healthier options across retail and dining settings.

4        There are early indications that these efforts are producing some results. For example, more Singaporeans are becoming physically active. More than 800,000 Singaporeans participated in season four of HPB’s National Steps Challenge, four times that in season one.

5        Based on the 2018 National Nutrition Survey, our diet quality has also improved. Singaporeans are consuming more unrefined carbohydrates Unsaturated fat is displacing saturated fat, which has decreased to 36% of total fat consumed in 2018 from 38% in 2010.  However, sugar and salt intake are still causes for concern. Our daily sugar intake remains high at 60g, with drinks, in particular pre-packaged drinks, being the largest single contributor of sugar. The average daily salt intake was 9g in 2018, with 90% of Singaporeans exceeding the recommended intake of 5g per day.

6        In November 2018, the government decided to form a HealthySG Taskforce to further promote healthy living and activate the community to support our efforts. The HealthySG Taskforce has recommended several initiatives, including the adoption of technology-enabled, personalised coaching solutions and a lifelong virtual Health Booklet for individuals to track their personal health status. We will also implement a support programme for lower income families, to help them stay healthy.

Detection

7        Early detection of diabetes is important, and we encourage Singaporeans to go for regular, age-appropriate screening and follow up. To make screening more convenient, MOH has enhanced the Screen for Life (SFL) Programme and recently adopted non-fasting tests which facilitate opportunistic screening. More than 65,000 Singaporeans have benefitted from cardiovascular and cancer screening in the 18 months following the enhancement of SFL subsidies in September 2017. This is almost 30 times higher than the number of Singaporeans who have come forward for screening over the preceding 18 months.

Management

8        We have also made efforts to enhance the management of diabetes and reduce related complications.  For example, we formulated a national strategy to reduce lower extremity amputations among diabetic patients through timely detection and clinical management. MOH recently issued an Appropriate Care Guide on foot assessment in people with diabetes. These guidelines help healthcare professionals better perform comprehensive foot assessment and treat diabetic complications in a timely manner.

Research

9        We have also been conducting more local research to understand the effectiveness and impact of our interventions.  For instance, Pre-DICTED, which stands for Pre-Diabetes Interventions & Continued Tracking to Ease out Diabetes, is a research programme by SingHealth to evaluate the effectiveness of a community-based intervention programme in reducing the conversion rate from pre-diabetes to diabetes. Data from this study can help us develop evidence-based, scalable and effective interventions for better clinical management and policies.

10      While there are early signs of progress in our war against diabetes, we cannot afford to let up our efforts. Many of these initiatives will only achieve the desired health outcomes in the long term.  The government will continue to work with key stakeholders and partners in the public, private and people sectors to sustain our efforts in this war.