Obesity Health Promotion Campaign in Singapore

Advances in healthcare development have led to a reduction in the prevalence of communicable diseases. Currently, the global focus is on major non-communicable diseases that include diabetes, cancer, and obesity. Obesity, in particular, poses a major challenge to many countries due to its complex nature. Obesity as a disease owes its complexity to the multidimensional factors causing it that include sedentary lifestyle, genetic predispositions, poor nutrition, lack of education, and socioeconomic status.

Running head: OBESITY HEALTH PROMOTION CAMPAIGN IN SINGAPORE 1
Obesity Health promotion Campaign in Singapore
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OBESITY HEALTH PROMOTION CAMPAIGN IN SINGAPORE 2
Obesity Health promotion Campaign in Singapore
Advances in healthcare development have led to a reduction in the prevalence of
communicable diseases. Currently, the global focus is on major non-communicable diseases that
include diabetes, cancer, and obesity. Obesity, in particular, poses a major challenge to many
countries due to its complex nature. Obesity as a disease owes its complexity to the multi-
dimensional factors causing it that include sedentary lifestyle, genetic predispositions, poor
nutrition, lack of education, and socioeconomic status. At the fundamental level, obesity involves
a functional imbalance between energy consumed through food and its expenditure through
physical activity. On the global scale most of the developing countries are grappling with the
increasing incidence of obesity (Gupta et al., 2010). Singapore is among the countries facing
health challenges in relation to obesity and developed elaborate health promotional campaigns to
fight the increasing incidence of obesity.
In Singapore, there are high death cases associated with cardiovascular diseases, second
only to cancer. Lee et al., (2016), notes that there is a high correlation between obesity and
cardiovascular complications. The relationship necessitates the need for critical interventions for
behavioral and lifestyle changes within the Singaporean population. Singapore undertakes a
collaborative approach that entails the efforts of the ministry of health, the education ministry,
health promotion board as well as non-governmental organizations. Further, Singapore engages
local communities, business people and firms, healthcare professionals and schools towards
promoting healthy choices to reduce incidences of obesity. The obesity health promotion

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programs are centrally coordinated in Singapore by the health promotion board that operates to
help Singaporeans to improve their quality of health and hence maintain optimum health.
According to Gupta et al., (2010), the prevalence of obesity in Singapore has been on an
increasing trend. Notably, the prevalence of obesity in Singapore increased to 10.8% by the year
2010. The statistics covered the individuals within the age of 18-69 years. About 40% of
Singaporeans are overweight and stand the risk of being affected by diseases such as diabetes
type 2 and cardiovascular diseases. In Singapore, there is persistence of obesity from childhood
to adulthood. Similarly, there is a high number of males suffering from obesity relative to
females.
Health promotion entails empowering people to take greater control of their health and to
develop positive attitudes towards health improvement. According to the Ottawa Charter for
health promotion, there are five fundamental issues for consideration while developing and
implementing any health promotion like the case of obesity in Singapore. These elements include
development of efficient and effective public policies, creation of supporting environments,
stimulation of community action, and development of personal skills as well as reorientation of
healthcare services to respond to the needs of the society like the Singaporeans (Gupta et al.,
2010).
Obesity is a complex situation that entangles with other social determinants of health in
society. Singapore is a multi-racial society that appreciates equally diverse values and cultures.
Further, socioeconomic factors affect the effective management of obesity especially for the
individuals from low economic background. Hence, effective management of obesity and
running of successful health promotion requires concerted efforts between agencies in any given

OBESITY HEALTH PROMOTION CAMPAIGN IN SINGAPORE 4
country. Despite, the different experiences of Singaporeans, the government has in place
working structures to ensure the health promotion campaign is effective in the whole nation (Foo
et al., 2013).
In light of the Singaporean scenario, the obesity health promotion approach used is highly
comprehensive and collaborative. Given the widespread nature of obesity across all ages,
Singapore developed a life-cycle approach. The key strategies under the Singapore approach
include development of public policies and guidelines towards health promotion, capacity
building and development framework, transformation of the ecosystem to enhance making of
healthy choices by the population, and a collaboration action to endeavor partnerships (Lee et al.,
2016).
The health promotion board of Singapore develops strategic guidelines on nutrition and
physical exercise to her population. The guidelines provide direction to both the professionals
and individuals in the practical recommendations regarding nutrition and physical activity
requirements. The guidelines provided are robust enough to cover for all ages. Further,
advertisements are highly regulated through policy to protect young children from scrupulous
traders in the market. All food advertisements in Singapore are done according to regulations set
and implemented by Advertising Standards Authority of Singapore (Huang, Mehta & Wong,
2011). Moreover, there is education policy in both primary and tertiary institutions referred to as
the Trim and Fit program that compels students to engage in physical activity. The program
introduces a responsible culture to the young students to enable them start making healthy
choices from the young age. The development of policies to in health promotion towards

OBESITY HEALTH PROMOTION CAMPAIGN IN SINGAPORE 5
combating obesity is in line with the Ottawa charter that requires development of public policies
in support of health promotion initiatives.
Singapore has implemented programs in schools that promote and empower health
promotion in schools and other institutions in line with the Ottawa Charter that proposes the use
of supporting the environment in health promotion. One of the initiatives to develop supportive
environments is CHERISH (Championing Efforts Resulting in Improved School Health). The
CHERISH program acts as a guidance to learning institutions towards designing of appropriate
processes, and structures to act as centers that promote health and wellbeing of both students and
staff members (Gupta et al., 2010). The initiative also included the setting up of healthy canteens
in learning institutions and other institutions like hospitals. The facilities are well designed to
offer healthy foods with well-designed meal plans to support a healthy eating habit among the
population. Further, Singapore supports and promotes the engagement of students at all levels of
learning in co-curricular activities (Oh & Rajasegaran, 2016). The financial support and
infrastructural development to support sporting activities is a great enabler for increased physical
activity among people in society (Chin et al., 2019). Moreover, the built environment is also
required to leave spaces for parks, walks, and pavements that can promote physical activity.
Singapore provides preventive health services that include assessment, nutritional, and
physical exercise advise to its citizens. The clinical assessment enables differential diagnosis to
eliminate the impact of other comorbidities. Interactive programs are also set up to educate both
the members of the society about healthy eating habits and exercise requirements. Also,
Singapore has developed systems to regularly monitor and evaluate the progress of the
individuals at high risk of developing obesity to the recommended management plans. Besides,

OBESITY HEALTH PROMOTION CAMPAIGN IN SINGAPORE 6
Singapore deploys trained nurses and other health professionals towards obesity health
promotion to improve the quality of health of Singaporeans (Hawkes, Jewell & Allen, 2013).
These measures are all aimed at achieving the Ottawa charter action that requires transformation
of the health system as a way of responding to the health need like obesity in the Singapore case
study.
Singapore also supports the development of personal skills towards achieving the obesity
health promotion campaign agenda. For instance, the development of a National Healthy
Lifestyle Program promotes healthy choices to address the emergence of chronic diseases. The
program guides individuals on physical activity, negative impacts of smoking, stress
management, and food consumption. Further, there is a healthy choice symbol that is placed on
foodstuffs to motivate buyers to make the right choices while purchasing products from outlets
(Hawkes, Jewell & Allen, 2013). The label indicates foods that are low in calories and fats as a
way of discouraging excessive energy consumption that may lead to obesity. The government of
Singapore also noted that most citizens would eat at hawker centers. Hence, they developed a
program that would encourage hawkers to prepare signature healthy foods to be served to their
customers. The program would diversify the options of the customers to enable them to make
healthy foods (Worsley et al., 2017).
The Singapore government also provides grants to workplaces to encourage physical
activity. This initiative targets the working class with busy working schedules and shifts.
Physical trainers are always in place to guide workers towards effective and safe physical
activities to promote healthy living. The galvanization of busy work schedules with fitness
programs at work places promotes the development of personal skills towards the promotion of

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healthy living among the Singaporeans (Hwang et al., 2017). Similarly, the government of
Singapore taps has tapped into the social network approach as a way of transforming personal
behavior. This is achieved through the use of Interactive Diet and Activity tracker system, which
is an online platform accessible through the smartphone applications (Gupta et al., 2010). The
program offers real-time feedback to users based on their physical activity and nutritional status.
As noted above, Singapore has deployed a highly comprehensive health promotion
strategy that is in line with the target areas as in the Ottawa Charter. The programs are achieved
through concerted collaboration among agencies and institutions in Singapore. Some of the
measures implemented include policy and guideline development, development of support
environments to support behavior change, encouraging personal development of skills and
transformation of the healthcare system. For instance, Singapore has a framework for
identification, clinical assessment and monitoring of obesity cases to determine their response to
specified interventions in place. Also, personal skills are developed and reinforced by the
presence of social network applications that provide real time feedback on physical and
nutritional status of individuals.

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References
Chin, M. K., Edginton, C. R., Tang, M. S., Phua, K. W., & Yang, J. Z. (2019). School and
Community-Based Physical Education and Healthy Active Living Programs: Holistic
Practices in Hong Kong, Singapore, and the United States. In Global Perspectives on
Childhood Obesity (pp. 325-337). Academic Press.
Foo, L. L., Vijaya, K., Sloan, R. A., & Ling, A. (2013). Obesity prevention and management:
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Gupta, N., Chin, M. K., Yang, J., Balasekaran, G., Chia, M., Girandola, R. N., ... & Mok, M. M.
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Hawkes, C., Jewell, J., & Allen, K. (2013). A food policy package for healthy diets and the
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Huang, L., Mehta, K., & Wong, M. L. (2011). Television food advertising in Singapore: the
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