INTRODUCTIONThis study assessed the health screening behaviour of Singaporeans and evaluated factors associated with low uptake of screening tests.

MATERIALS AND METHODSData from the 2010 National Health Survey, which was conducted on Singapore citizens and permanent residents, was used in this analysis. Multivariate Cox regression was used to evaluate the relationship between sociodemographics and health screening behaviour for selected chronic diseases (hypertension, diabetes and hypercholesterolaemia) and cancers (cervical, breast and colorectal). National recommendations for age at which screening should be initiated and appropriate screening interval were used to define appropriate screening behaviour.

RESULTSMore respondents have had their last chronic disease screening done within the recommended time period compared to cancer screening. A total of 77.8%, 63.4% and 54.9% of the respondents had their last hypertension, diabetes and hypercholesterolaemia done within the recommended time period respectively, while less than 50% of the respondents had their cervical (45.8%), breast (32.9%) and colorectal (20.2%) cancer screenings done within the recommended time period. Respondents with higher household income or more years of education were more likely to have undergone screening within the recommended time period. Indians, who are at higher risk of chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypercholesterolaemia, were also more likely to have been screened. A total of 69.9% and 79.5% of the respondents with previously undiagnosed diabetes and hypertension had reported to have done diabetes and hypertension screenings respectively, within the recommended time period.

CONCLUSIONSociodemographic factors that could be associated with a lower uptake of screening tests include: 1) low household income, 2) low education level, and 3) Malay ethnicity. Health promotion programmes and outreach to these groups can be enhanced to further improve screening uptake.

Adult ; Aged ; Breast Neoplasms ; diagnostic imaging ; Colonoscopy ; utilization ; Colorectal Neoplasms ; diagnosis ; Diabetes Mellitus ; diagnosis ; Early Detection of Cancer ; utilization ; Female ; Health Behavior ; Humans ; Hypercholesterolemia ; diagnosis ; Hypertension ; diagnosis ; Male ; Mammography ; utilization ; Mass Screening ; utilization ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasms ; diagnosis ; Occult Blood ; Papanicolaou Test ; utilization ; Proportional Hazards Models ; Singapore ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms ; diagnosis ; Vaginal Smears ; utilization

Humans ; Chronic Pain ; Analgesics, Opioid ; Pain Management ; Primary Health Care

COVID-19 ; Heart Diseases ; Humans ; Incidence ; SARS-CoV-2 ; Singapore/epidemiology*

The Health Promotion Board (HPB) has developed the Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPG) on Falls Prevention among Older Adults Living in the Community to provide health professionals in Singapore with recommendations for evidence-based assessments and interventions for falls prevention. This article reproduces the introduction and executive summary of the key recommendations from the HPB-MOH CPG on Falls Prevention among Older Adults Living in the Community for the information of SMJ readers. The chapters and page numbers mentioned in the reproduced extract refer to the full text of the guidelines, which are available from the Health Promotion Board website: http://www.hpb.gov. sg/cpg-falls-prevention. The recommendations should be used with reference to the full text of the guidelines. Following this article are multiple choice questions based on the full text of the guidelines.
Accidental Falls ; prevention & control ; Aged ; Environment ; Evidence-Based Medicine ; Geriatrics ; standards ; Health Promotion ; methods ; Housing ; Humans ; Incidence ; Middle Aged ; Practice Guidelines as Topic ; Risk Assessment ; methods ; Singapore ; Social Class