Diabetes Needs Assessment in a Community with Identified Areas

Running Head: DIABETES MELLITUS
DIABETES MELLITUS
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

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Introduction
This report will summarize the health needs assessment that is needed in an identified
population through an interview of a patient and it will include the description of the population
with identified areas for the needs assessment, the epidemiology of diabetes in this community
and the prevalence of diabetes in Singapore that will include the high risk groups, the services
and interventions that is already existing for the care of this disease, identification of unmet
needs and the proposal plan that will be designed to combat this issue (Zimmet et al., 2014).
Interview for health assessment
The health needs will be identified of a patient who is named Mr. A and he is a 60 year
old man of the Chinese origin. He was diagnosed of diabetes mellitus around 3 years back and
he is under the medication known as metformin 850 mg thrice daily to control and prevent
further complications due to diabetes. The prevalence of diabetes is common in Singapore and
the patient is from the same community, which makes it necessary for the healthcare sectors to
work in collaboration to find a solution for such issues. Mr. A has been trying medical
interventions, therapeutic diet and physical activities to maintain his blood glucose levels. He
was unaware of the consequences of this disease because initially he thought it is a flu and it will
be treated through medications. After a long time he realized what diabetes is and he needed to
live with it his whole life through lifestyle maintenance. This shows the unawareness of people
who are not educated about the chronic diseases and its consequences to their health (Zheng, Ley
& Hu, 2018).
Diabetes is a chronic lifestyle disorder that occurs when the blood glucose levels are not
under control due to the low secretion or no secretion of insulin hormones and when the body

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becomes insensitive to the action of insulin. When there is an excess amount of glucose in the
blood, it can lead to severe issues such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetic neuropathy, kidney
disease, stroke and cataract (Papatheodorou et al., 2016). The global prevalence of diabetes has
risen from 4.7% to 8.5% in the time span of 1980-2014 amongst adults above the age of 18. This
is an alarming rate and is threat to the global public health as well as the healthcare sectors.
Diabetes is divided into three categories according to its pathophysiology such diabetes type 1,
diabetes type 2 and gestational diabetes. The most common type of diabetes is diabetes mellitus
type 2 as the reason for its prevalence is unhealthy lifestyle that includes alcohol, trans-fat, diet
rich in refined food, smoking and a sedentary lifestyle. This paper will be discussing about
diabetes mellitus type 2.
Epidemiology in Singapore
Singapore has a changing demography of diabetes mellitus and the prevalence keeps
rising almost every year. From 1975 to 1984, the rate increased from 2% to 4.7%, in 1992 the
rate was 8.6% and 9% in adults between the ages of 18-69 years in 1998. The most risked groups
are Malay with 14.3%, Indian women with 14.9% and Indian men with 16.7%. The reason for
such alarming incidence rate is due to the fact that it is an affluent country with a fast growing
population including the deterioration of the quality of lifestyle with a rise in sedentary lifestyle,
which is eventually leading to fast ageing in the population (Phan et al., 2014). A population
15% in Singapore has been have the issue of impaired glucose tolerance (IGT). Diabetes is the
reason for 39.7% of strokes in the country and the reason for 9.3% of deaths in the country. The
6th leading cause of death in Singapore is Diabetes Mellitus as the children is also diagnosed with
type 2 diabetes mellitus, which is due to obesity (Kove et al., 2017). The prevalence of obesity is
highest in Malay community with 16.2%Indian communities with 12.2%, and Chinese

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community with 3.8%. This can be controlled by decreasing childhood obesity, stopping the
consumption of alcohol and tobacco, and promoting physical activity amongst adults. The global
statistic shows that the prevalence of diabetes in the age group of 20-79 years is 463 million and
it is predicted that it will increase 700 million till the year 2045 according to the International
Diabetes Federation. The majority of the diabetic patients are found in the middle and low
income countries and that consists of 79%. Approximately, every 1 in 5 individual is a diabetic
and every 1 person in 2 individuals are not diagnosed. A total of 4.2 million deaths have been
reported due to diabetes and the loss of monetary gains is predicted to be 760 billion dollars only
in the healthcare sectors (Ng et al., 2014). It is also being predicted that around 374 million
people are susceptible to being diagnosed with diabetes mellitus type 2. The incidence rate of
diabetes in Singapore is higher than the global rate, which is 12.8% and 10.8%, respectively
(Guariguata et al., 2014).
Existing Services and Interventions
Singapore Ministry of Health has been implementing action plans and policies for
controlling the epidemic of diabetes in the country. In the year of 2016, a set up was created
known as National Diabetes Prevention and Care Task Force to eradicate and control the issue of
diabetes mellitus. It was done to improve the quality of public health in Singapore and reduce the
incidence of diabetes as it is becoming a matter of national concern. The mission of this
framework was to make people live without the trauma of diabetes and if they are diagnosed
with the disease then they should know how to manage (Ting et al., 2016). The strategic
framework of this initiative was to prevent the prevalence of this disease through safe living,
detecting it in the early stages and prevention, and enhancing ways for disease control. The name
of this campaign was War on Diabetes and it published a report that suggested that different