Declaration of war on diabetes timely, key battle will be fighting obesity

HEARING the Prime Minister dispense advice on exercising and eating right at the National Day Rally was, to be sure, something of a departure from the usual; traditionally, the annual policy address setting out the government's priorities and plans for the year tends to focus on the big economic and sociopolitical topics of the day.

But delve into the facts and figures, and it would be clear that tackling diabetes warrants attention as a weighty concern in its own right, along with the other two "longer term" issues that Mr Lee Hsien Loong highlighted as important to the success and well-being of the country and the people - building up preschool education, and using IT to make Singapore a Smart Nation. Compared with, say, cancer, a diabetes diagnosis might almost seem benign, with many patients initially showing no symptoms. But it's in fact one of the top 10 killer diseases in Singapore. And what's particularly devastating about the chronic disease is the severe toll it exacts if not well managed and treated, with complications such as blindness, nerve damage, kidney failure, heart disease and limb amputation. As the Diabetic Society of Singapore notes, studies show that about half of patients already have diabetes-related complications at the time of diagnosis.

And Singapore unfortunately also bears the dubious distinction of having among the highest proportion of diabetics among developed nations, second only to the United States. One in nine Singaporeans suffer from the disease. On Sunday, Mr Lee described the prevalence here, especially among people above 60, as "a very serious problem" - and, for Indians and Malays who are more susceptible to diabetes, as "actually a health crisis". The high incidence of diabetes here is part of a global trend - according to the World Health Organisation, the number of people living with diabetes will likely more than double in the next 20 years, having quadrupled since 1980 to 422 million adults in 2014. In 2016, the WHO marked World Health Day by calling for action on diabetes. And while genes play a part in causing diabetes, the disease can be treated and its consequences avoided or delayed with diet, physical activity, medication and regular screening. While noting that the causes behind the surge in the incidence of diabetes are complex, the WHO points to one clear trend in particular - more and more people around the world are overweight. And here, Singapore is also on the wrong side of the charts, with the Health Promotion Board's numbers showing that the obesity rate could hit a tipping point of 15 per cent in seven years.