News

The trend of consuming home packed lunches to work or school is seen as a healthier option but people are still having food from hawker centres, food courts and coffee shops four to seven times a week. Dr Mary Chong, Assistant Professor, stated that here is an importance of cultivating healthy eating habits from young as if people were to wait until adulthood, their eating habits would have been deeply entrenched and would be difficult to modify. The presence of developmental, biological and behavioral influences will have long-term profound consequences onRead more

In the program Challenge Tomorrow: Adapting to Ageing, the host sets out to find out what it means to be an elderly person living in this current time and why ageing can be seen to be a problem for the society. An ageing population places a higher demand on healthcare and there is a need to increase the number of people in the intermediate and long term healthcare sector by 2020 to support the demand. Living in an era of smart machines plays an important role in an ageing societyRead more

The minimum legal age for smoking in Singapore will be raised from 18 to 21, to make it harder for young people to get hold of cigarettes at a time when they are more vulnerable to peer pressure and the addictive effects of nicotine. The National Health Surveillance Survey showed that Singaporeans are starting to pick up the habit at a younger age. Professor Chia Kee Seng, Dean of the NUS Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health noted that “Tobacco companies are known to target youth in their marketing toRead more

A study published in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology investigated the long term impact red meat consumption has on kidney health. The study, which was carried out at NUS Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health and Duke-NUS Medical School also investigated the potential impact that red meat has on kidney health. Professor Koh Woon Puay delved into the data from the Singapore Chinese Health Studies with the aim to uncover the role of different protein sources on kidney health outcomes. The results of their study have shown that thatRead more

The Community Health Projects (CHP) presentation, is an annual intensive 2-day presentation session organised by the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, which showcases the findings of the various community health-related research projects undertaken by the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine’s undergraduates, under the supervision of our School’s faculty. Recently held on 1st and 2nd March, this year’s session was attended by 300 fourth-year medical students as well as their supervisors and guests from other health agencies. Following each student group’s presentation, the audience engaged at length in robustRead more

Young minds are often more vulnerable to bad habits as they were able to mimic the behavior and actions made by the adults that are in their lives. For the most part, trying to promote healthy living among the young in Singapore would require their parents to play an integral part. Professor Chia Kee Seng, Dean of the NUS Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health commented on how the initiatives that were recommended by the inter-agency taskforce NurtureSG should not be seen in isolation.  Prof Chia mentioned that the initiativesRead more

Associate Professor Rob Martinus Van Dam shared his knowledge together with Will Hawkins, Nutritionist at Push Doctor about the effects of caffeine addiction with The Tab UK. Prof Rob mentioned how the human body can become physically dependent on caffeine and if consumed regularly, people can become tolerant to coffee and would need a larger dose to achieve the same effects. Both experts have agreed that coffee can have positive health benefits when consumed in smaller quantities.  In terms of estimating the exact amount of caffeine consumed to lead to beingRead more

In Singapore, tobacco kills about 2500 smokers each year. Even though the overall smoking rate has stabilized at 13 percent for the Singapore context, it does not compare well with the likes of other developed countries like Sweden and Australia. There are different measures in place to try and get the public to know the harms of smoking and programs have been rolled out by the Health Promotion Board to schools in an  effort to stub out smoking among the young population within educational institutions. “People who do not startRead more

Professor Chia Kee Seng, Dean of the NUS Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health and Dr Kenneth Warner, Avedis Donabedian Distinguished University Professor of Public Health at the Michigan School of Public Health, University of Michigan have raised the alarm bells on the increase in tobacco-related deaths. Smoking kills approximately six million people a year, and one tenth of those deaths are from inhaling second-hand smoke. Even with government intervention with tobacco control measures like public education on the harmful effects, taxation, control of sales and advertising, the death tollRead more

A study co-authored by Associate Professor Hsu Li Yang, Head of the Antimicrobial Resistance Programme at the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, found out there is a potential risk to consumers if they were to consume raw meat that might harbor antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which could cause difficult-to-treat infections. A test was conducted during the study and the results showed that 15 out of 19 raw chilled and frozen samples of chicken meat obtained from various retail stores in Singapore tested positive for a type of bacteria known as extended-spectrumRead more

Controlling portion sizes served by food vendors could be an effective tactic in reducing over-consumption and tackling obesity, says Professor Chia Kee Seng, Dean of the NUS Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health. Singapore is seeing rising obesity rates, with one in nine Singapore residents aged between 18 and 69 considered obese in 2010, a figure which was approximately double the rate in 1992. Obesity was also found to be more prevalent among males, at 12.1 percent, as compared to females at 9.5 percent. Over-eating may be linked to cultural habitsRead more

A study conducted by NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine students in February 2015 revealed that 78% of patients who consulted their GPs were not aware that antibiotics do not work against viruses such as those which cause the common cold. More than two-thirds also mistakenly believed that antibiotics could cure coughs, sore throats and runny nose, symptoms usually caused by viruses. In addition, the study also found that a third of patients expected antibiotics to be prescribed for common ailments, and half of those would visit another doctorRead more