Physical activity, health screenings took a dip during pandemic: Survey

More seniors had flu jabs, more people willing to seek formal help for stress

- Joyce Teo

The Covid-19 pandemic significantly affected the health of Singaporeans, with fewer of them engaging in physical activity and the country seeing a drop in the number of people going for chronic disease and recommended cancer screening.

This highlights the need for Singaporeans to take care of their own health, particularly against the backdrop of an ageing population, said the Ministry of Health (MOH), which released the latest National Population Health Survey on Tuesday.

On a positive note, the self-reported uptake for pneumococcal and influenza vaccination went up during the survey More people were also willing to seek help from healthcare professionals to cope with stress period.

This is the first set of survey results affected by the pandemic, said MOH. It was conducted among residents aged 18 to 74, who answered a questionnaire between July 2020 and June 2021.

Health screening participation fell, compared with the year before the pandemic hit, likely because non-urgent services, which included screening services, were deferred, MOH said.

This is significant in the case of screening for chronic diseases, where participation fell from about 66 per cent in 2019 to about 59 per cent in 2021, but the percentage of those who self-reported chronic diseases was comparable to pre-pandemic days.