Singapore: low-income people face diabetes risks
A medical research publicised recently in Singapore showed that low-income people in the Southeast Asian country face the risk of getting diabetes because of obesity.
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Dr. Kalpana Bhaskaran, head of the research team on glycemic blood sugar indicator of the Tamasek college, said there are many signs showing the correlation between obesity and diabetes while the rate of obesity is increasing in the low-income group.
Singapore’s medical investigation in 2010 indicated that households with income of less than 2,000 SGD or US$1,469 has the highest rate of obesity, due to limited access to healthy food.
According to Singapore’s International Diabetes Federation, Singapore has the second highest rate of diabetes among developed countries with more than 400,000, only behind the United States, and the number will rise to one million by 2050.
In April this year, the Singaporean government initiated the fight against diabetes and established a working group on preventing the disease.
According to Dr. Bhaskaran, it is necessary to boost public communication campaigns, guide households with low income how to identify nutritional values on food labels or spot the “choice for health” symbol to select suitable food.
