Dear friends,

Hope everything went well for the past week! 

On 10th Nov 2007, 15 volunteers from Years 1-3 participated in the World Diabetes Day exhibition, in collaboration with the Diabetic Society of Singapore.

World Diabetes Day

Participants 

Participants of the pre-health screening risk test* were assessed based on their BMI, age, frequency of exercise and family history of diabetes. Here’s something to share regarding the findings we received from the pre-health screening risk assessment…

Based on the 150 non-diabetics who were assessed, 83% were at risk of getting diabetes. Although this group of participants may not be representative of the population, it is nevertheless surprising to note that a vast majority of them are at risk of the disease!

Let’s take a look at the various risk factors that were considered before the health screening was conducted:

 Risk Factors

As little has been published about the risk factors of diabetes in Singapore as well as the number of people who are affected by these factors, our small-scale assessment provides great insights as to how the disease is becoming a growing affliction in the country, if proper education and advice on health management are not provided for the public. This speaks a lot on how we can help in educating the public as future partners of the healthcare profession – by simply creating awareness of the condition; let nothing stop you from doing more!

More information on the World Diabetes Day annual campaign can be found at the website: http://www.worlddiabetesday.org/

I wish every one of you a happy holiday!

Warmest Regards,

Selena Teng

Vice-President

47th Executive Committee

NUS Pharmaceutical Society

*The Diabetes Risk Test was conducted using questions and scoring system from the American Diabetes Association’s online “Diabetes Risk Test” (http://www.diabetes.org/risk-test.jsp). Certain aspects of the questions were modified with permission from The American Diabetes Association, to account for conditions in the local context.