Diseases Prevalent among Malay Community

Mr Zaqy Mohamad asked the Minister for Health in respect of the latest statistics by the National Registry of Diseases that a disproportionate number of diabetics and patients with kidney failure, heart attacks and strokes come from the Malay population (a) whether the Ministry has plans to address the issue with the Malay community; and (b) whether the Ministry has conducted specific research on the causes and devised strategies to address them accordingly.

The Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health (Assoc Prof Dr Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim)(for the Minister for Health): Mdm Speaker, there are ethnic differences in the rates of non-communicable diseases in Singapore. While Chinese had the highest incidence of cancer, Malays had the highest incidence of kidney failure, heart attacks and stroke in 2013. These non-communicable diseases all have common lifestyle risk factors, such as obesity, smoking, unhealthy diet, a lack of sufficient physical activity, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. However, the impact of these risk factors can be reduced through the adoption of a healthier lifestyle, including having a balanced diet, sufficient physical activity, not smoking and going for regular health screening.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Health Promotion Board (HPB) have a variety of preventive health programmes and activities targeted at the general population, including children, adolescents, adults and the elderly, to keep Singaporeans healthy and free of illness and disability for as long as possible through the adoption and maintenance of healthy lifestyle habits. To further encourage positive behavioural change, we launched the Healthy Living Masterplan in 2014, which aims to make healthy living accessible, natural and effortless for all Singaporeans.

While rolling out population-based programmes to all Singaporeans, HPB has, over the years, tailored programmes specific to the cultural context of the various ethnic groups. Take, for example, the Holistic Women's Health Workshop Series, which aims to empower women to take charge of their own and families' health over a range of health topics. This series of workshops is not only conducted in English, but also contextualised for the Chinese- and Malay-speaking audiences.

Since 2012, HPB has been partnering Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura (MUIS) and mosques in the Ramadan I Quit smoking cessation programmes. In 2014, of the 1,507 participants, one in five quit smoking and another one in four reduced the number of cigarettes they smoked.

In 2013, HPB partnered the Singapore Muslim Women's Association (Persatuan Pemudi Islam Singapura or PPIS) and mosques to launch the 2014 Health calendar for Malay women.

Page: 13

Serving as a healthy living educational tool, the calendar incorporates healthy recipes, health tips and screening messages to help users make healthier choices for themselves and their families. The response was positive and we have increased the distribution of the 2015 calendar tenfold to 30,000 households. In fact, this initiative has proven so popular that we have just launched a Chinese version of this calendar for the Chinese community, too.

Such initiatives and programmes are guided by the data and research that MOH and HPB conduct on the population, such as the National Health Survey, National Health Surveillance Survey and National Nutrition Survey. These surveys gather quantitative data on the health behaviour of the community and are complemented by ongoing qualitative feedback processes for further fine tuning of programmes.

My Ministry continuously reviews our research methodology to ensure that we have the latest data on the health status of the population. We will also continue to incorporate best practices and research findings from other countries, where relevant, and update our health prevention programmes and strategies tailored to the local context, including the Malay community.

Mdm Speaker, I would like to thank the Parliamentary Secretary for his reply. Two clarifications. First, in profiling the Malay community as being more prone to certain sorts of diseases, have these co-rrelations been identified through studies of profiles of the population or is it more genetics? I am just wondering if more in-depth research has been done.

Two, in terms of outreach, it is great to see outreach, such as quit smoking campaigns, being done at the mosques. The number of people being reached out to is about 5,000, and the Parliamentary Secretary mentioned that one fifth had quit smoking, for example. This is good outreach, but I think the numbers are still a bit small. There are also many other diseases that need to be managed as well. Is the Ministry considering more of such outreach or more of such collaborations in the community to address the other health issues?

I want to thank the Member for the supplementary questions. As I had mentioned earlier, all the non-communicable diseases have common lifestyle risk factors, which are linked very directly to obesity, the food that we eat, as well as the lack of sufficient physical activity. These affect diseases like high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Essentially, what we have been trying to do is to encourage people to eat moderately, a balanced diet, to have physical activities and go for health screening.

Page: 14

It is important that we embark on this. At the same time, we have noticed that different ethnic groups have different lifestyles. Even though all of us eat, but Malays have their common way of eating and the dishes that they like. Similarly for the Chinese and the others.

We have moved into a targeted approach, which I had shared earlier. The calendar is very popular this year. We not only give aspects of the calendar, but we also relate to their lifestyle, in terms of the food that they cook and their common habits, so that we can reach out to the different sectors of the community. We realised that, over time, they become excited about how to live healthily. With that aspect, we want to focus on these lifestyle factors.

Beyond that, in terms of genetics, we do not have significant evidence to show such a phenomenon. Based on what we have and what research we have done locally, we realise that such lifestyle practices play an important role. And we can reduce the risk to such non-communicable diseases among the community if we focus on the aspects of healthy eating, physical activity as well as going for proper and appropriate health screening.

With regards to outreach, Members will see that, over time, we have been able to reach out to more and more Singaporeans in terms of the programmes that we have. For example, the calendar, we have increased it tremendously in terms of numbers. When we did it last year, we received many requests from the community, asking for more. We gave out more publicity materials than what we gave out last year. Demand has gone up so much that we had to ask for more materials.

Secondly, if you look at the anti-smoking campaign, the "I Quit" programme, you would realise that the numbers have not only gone up, the number of families coming on board to be part of this process of their family members has also gone up. I was there in the last few years to share the load and to reach out to the community. I was so touched by the community support not only among the children and spouses, but also among grandparents coming to support to get their children to quit smoking.

Beyond these figures, anecdotally, I feel that there has also been an increase in terms of awareness about healthy living. For example, locally in my area, over two years, the number of Malays coming on board to be a part of an exercise group, which I join often, has gone up by three times. I met them recently and I am so happy because I usually ask how many would need a calendar. In the past, it was about 10 to 15. This year, close to 40 to 50 asked for it. When I went down and met them, there was a sense of passion, commitment towards healthy living.

Page: 15

Also, you see more stakeholders coming together to be part of it. For example, we have the Geng Sihat over the last weekend – Mdm Speaker was also part of this process to reach out to the community.

We are beginning to see more and more small pockets of those in the Malay/Muslim community coming together to reach out, to live healthily and, at the same time, create an atmosphere that healthy living is the right thing to do.

I would like to assure the Member that we would continue this effort. We feel that it is important for the community to be healthy and this will help the community to achieve a better life in Singapore.