Diabetes as a National Health Priority in Singapore

Running head: HEALTH AND WELL-BEING
HEALTH AND WELL-BEING
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HEALTH AND WELL-BEING
Introduction:
Diabetes had become one of the most concerning health priorities of the nation of
Singapore. This disorder occurs when the cells of the body become resistant to insulin or cannot
producing insulin affecting the increasing the blood glucose level. (Ng et al., 2015). This
assignment would discuss how this disorder had become a national health priority in the nation
of /Singapore and how this can be addressed.
National health priority and prevalence of the health issue:
In the nation of Singapore, diabetes had become a common disorder affecting huge
number of individuals. Studies have shown that about 440,000 Singaporeans had been affected
by the disorder in the year 2014. Estimates provided by the researchers have stated that if the
disorder is not controlled and managed effectively, it might result in developing a situation in the
country where more than one million people would be found affected by the year 2050 (Png et
al., 2016). A recent study conducted by the governmental departments has found out that
diabetes is accounting for about 10% of the disease in the nation of Singapore(Zhang et al.,
2017). Diabetes had been found to be the fourth and the eighth most common condition of the
polyclinic attendances and that of hospitalization in the year of 2014. It had been also found in
the year 2010, that diabetes was the fourth largest among the top ten disorders in the nation that
was associated with mortality and ill-health (Siaw et al., 2018). The cost burden of the disorder is
seen to include not only additional medical expenses but also account to productivity loss. This
cost burden from diabetes is expected to rise from $940 million in the year 2014 to that of the
$1.8 billion in the year 2050.

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HEALTH AND WELL-BEING
Targeted audience:
A detailed analysis of the prevalence of diabetes among the people of the nation had
shown that the most affected cohort according to age is the cohort of the old people belonging to
the age range of 60 to 69. 29.1% of the aged people had been found to be suffering from the
disorder with 19.3% of the affected people belonging to age cohort of 50 – 59. About 12.1% of
the population belonging to age cohort of 40 to 49 had been found to be affected as well
(Nanditha et al., 2016). This shows that the age-cohort that is mostly affected is those aged from
60 to 69. Moreover, it is also seen that in a gender based manner, males are more affected than
females accounting for 12.3% whereas the later accounts for about 10.4 %. As both the gender-
based analysis shows close results, the health promotion program can be developed for the
people of age cohort of 50 to 70 for both genders (Sallis et al., 2015).
Complications arising from the widespread prevalence of the disorder:
Progression of the complications takes place when the disorder is poorly controlled. Huge
numbers of complications that relate with diabetes include nephropathy, neuropathy, kidney
disorders, foot complications and many others. In the nation of Singapore, it has been found that
2 among 5 of the stroke victims in the nation were found to be diabetic (Hilliard et al., 2016). I in
2 heart attack victims was found to be diabetic and 2 in 3 kidney failure cases were diabetes
related. The impact of diabetes on the different types of healthcare costs as well as productivity
losses is set to increase in the coming years. It has been found to be $1.02 million in 2010 to that
of $ 2.5 billion in the year 2050 and hence can be considered to be one of the most important
health priorities in the nation.