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SINGAPORE: Four agencies are teaming up in a research project that hopes to discover effective prevention and early intervention strategies for diseases such as obesity and diabetes.
The National University Health System, the Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences, the Agency for Science, Technology and Research and the KK Women's and Children's Hospital are collaborating on the GUSTO study.
The study will look at pregnancy and early childhood factors that lead to increased risks of such diseases.
The agencies said there is increasing evidence that factors in early development are major causes of obesity and type 2 diabetes.
They said there is also a need to study the "Asian Phenotype" as most of the current knowledge of these diseases is from the West.
Asians seem more prone to metabolic diseases at lower Body Mass Index and different ethnic groups seem to have different risks.
Singapore has one of the highest prevalence of type 2 diabetes in the world. It has increased over the past three decades, from 1.9 per cent of adults in 1975 to 8.2 per cent in 2004.
The prevalence of obesity is also rising in Singapore. It increased from 5.1 per cent of adults in 1992 to 6.9 per cent in 2004. In school children, the rate is almost double, at over 12 per cent.
- CNA/so
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