Speech by Mdm Rahayu Mahzam, Minister of State, MOH & MDDI, At The Women’s Health Conference 2024 on Friday, 25 October 2024

Her Excellency Ms Minh-di Tang, Ambassador of France to Singapore

Professor Chong Yap Seng, Dean of the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore

Professor Matthieu Resche-Rigon, Dean of the School of Medicine, Université Paris Cité

Professor Michelle Williams, Former Dean of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University

Professor Zhang Cuilin, Director of the Global Centre for Asian Women’s Health, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore

Professor Vassilis Tsatsaris, Director of Institute of Women’s Health, Université Paris Cité

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

1. Good morning. It is such a pleasure and honour to be here at this 2024 Women’s Health Conference, jointly organised by the Global Centre for Asian Women’s Health (GloW) based at the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine and Université Paris Cité (UPCité).

2. The theme for this year’s conference is “Save women’s lives, promote wellbeing, and nurture potential – a holistic and life course approach”. The conference covers a wide range of women’s health issues, including lifestyle and risk factors, nutrition, and fertility, which spans across various stages of a woman’s life. These are pertinent topics as we seek to advance women’s health here in Singapore.

Findings from the latest health surveys

3. In Singapore, non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are major causes of disease burden. Cancers, for example, contributed to 14% of the disease burden in both men and women. Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women, and the incidence, even after adjusting for population ageing, has risen to approximately 76 cases per 100,000 women from 63 a decade ago. The prevalence of hypertension and hyperlipidaemia in female Singapore residents was around 30% and 28% respectively in 2022, as compared to around 18% and 24% in 2010. We are doing better for diabetes, which has showed a slight decrease in prevalence, from 8% in 2010 to 7% in 2022.

Promoting women’s health in Singapore

4. Healthy lifestyle practices such as engaging in adequate physical activity and attending recommended health screenings regularly are important in preventing the onset and enabling the early detection and management of NCDs. These healthy lifestyle practices apply to women as well.

5. For physical activity, the Singapore Physical Activity Guidelines (SPAG) recommend that adults engage in at least 150 to 300 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity each week, and to include two days of muscle strengthening activities and gentle stretching. For pregnant and postpartum women, it is recommended to stay active by engaging in a variety of aerobic, muscle-strengthening and light stretching exercises. Based on the National Population Health Survey (NPHS) 2023, the prevalence of women who have achieved sufficient total physical activity stands at around 77% in 2023, compared to 73% in 2022. While the results seem promising, they represent a decline from 2017 where the prevalence was 84%. This decline was partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but we need to recover from this, and we need to continue improving these statistics.

6. Singaporeans are encouraged to attend regular recommended health screenings and follow ups, to better manage their health and health outcomes. In addition, women aged 18 to 39 years old who have a history of Gestational Diabetes during pregnancy are recommended to have, and are eligible for subsidised screening under the national subsidised screening programme. The NPHS 2023 results showed that, over 63% of Singaporean women attended chronic disease screening in 2023. In the same year, around 35% and 45% of women have attended breast and cervical cancer screening respectively. There is still room to encourage the adoption of healthier lifestyles and screening.

7. We are doing more to encourage women to take proactive steps towards better health and to work with the relevant stakeholders to encourage healthy lifestyle behaviours and screening uptake, including that of cancers such as breast cancer, that causes high burden of disease in women.

8. For example, to support residents in achieving healthier lifestyles, the Health Promotion Board (HPB) offers app-based digital health programmes which reach out to more than 1 million Singaporeans, as well as island-wide physical activity programmes for all age groups and gender. These programmes are free of charge and are available at convenient locations, enabling Singaporeans to stay active and healthy within the community.

9. Last year, we also progressively rolled out Healthier SG, to focus more on preventive care. Eligible residents can enrol with their preferred family clinic, who will support them in managing their health holistically and achieving their health goals through their Health Plan. Recommended health screenings for cancers, including breast and cervical cancer, and chronic diseases conducted at their enrolled clinics are fully subsidised for eligible citizens. In addition, residents can gain access to a wide range of healthy lifestyle programmes to help them stay active and healthy. I hope to see more women enrol in Healthier SG and take proactive steps to achieve their health goals, and screen and follow up on health issues early.

10. These are all the efforts the Government in Singapore, the Ministry of Health in Singapore, are looking at and have been working on to encourage healthy lifestyles among women. So, as we discuss the issues surrounding women and how we can help them, I hope you bear this in mind and see how you can weave in some of these existing platforms and existing efforts to further strengthen our goal to encourage women and the community to stay healthy. Our health is our most important asset. We encourage women to play a more active role in adopting and maintaining healthy lifestyles, and taking charge of our health, because we want to have everyone living their lives to the fullest potential. And this applies to men too, because for men, you also should take care of your health, and your support can make a significant difference to the health and well-being of your loved ones.

Collaboration between GloW and Université Paris Cité

11. These are some of the initiatives we already have in place, and I am glad there is a platform like this where practitioners and experts can come together to discuss, because there is much more that we can still do in the area of women’s health, including research and sharing of best practices.

12. I am heartened to learn that GloW and UPCité share a common vision of advancing the health and wellbeing of women around the world. Despite having difficulties pronouncing each other’s names and schools, we come together every year to work on this very meaningful effort, and this has led them to actively incorporate scientific knowledge into clinical and public health practices through education, research, and practice to better the health of women.

13. One key area that both organisations have been working together on is the identification of modifiable risk factors, such as nutrition and lifestyle factors that could influence women’s health, and the potential interventions for disease prevention. A notable collaboration is an upcoming study to look at how a Mediterranean diet tailored for an Asian palate impacts the health of women.

14. These collaborative efforts between GloW and UPCité exemplify the importance of international partnerships in advancing women's health and pave the way for innovative and culturally tailored interventions to enhance the well-being of women globally.

Closing

15. In closing, I am pleased to see the growing collaboration and dialogue between experts. I hope this conference can help to put together ideas and strategies that can further address the unique challenges faced by women in the region.

16. I am excited by the potential to chart a healthier and happier future for all women. I wish everyone a fruitful conference. Thank you and have a good day ahead.