One million diabetics by 2050

By 2050, Singapore may have as many as one million diabetics. Every one in two people, by age 70, will be diabetic – up from one in three today. Of the adult population, 15% will suffer from the disease, compared with 11.3% now.

And because people here are not just getting older, but also fatter, obesity is likely to push up the risks of diabetes, which in turn raises the risk of stroke, heart and kidney failure, and blindness.

Ageing and obesity are the two main factors that will drive Singapore’s number of diabetics up in the next 40 years, according to new research by the National University of Singapore’s Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health.

Sounding the warning on Monday at the Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel, its dean Chia Kee Seng said such academic knowledge had to be translated into action.

“We can now project the impact of proposed obesity reduction programmes on the prevalence of diabetes in Singapore in 2050,” he told more than 400 international participants at the opening of the inaugural Singapore International Public Health Conference.

“We hope this kind of capability can help bridge the gap between research and policies.”

The two-day conference, on Translating Public Health Research into Practice, is jointly hosted by the school and the Chapter of Public Health and Occupational Physicians of the Academy of Medicine, Singapore.

Dr Alex Cook, the researcher at the school who worked out the 2050 figures, said that if Singapore managed to keep obesity in check, it could reduce the number of diabetics by 15 to 20% by 2050 – or 150,000 to 200,000 fewer diabetic patients.

Dr Amy Khor, Minister of State for Health and Manpower, said in her opening address: “We hope to see patients’ and population’s needs better identified.”

She said what the school was doing “exemplifies the kind of approach we need – an academic endeavour that explicitly envisions and works towards real-world application of their research work”. — The Straits Times/ Asia News Network

Source: The Star

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