The validation of culturally appropriate scales to assess the family health climate in a multi-ethnic Asian population.

Background: The Family Health Climate (FHC) is a family environment attribute postulated to influence the health behaviors of family members. It can be measured by domain scales for physical activity (FHC-PA) and nutrition (FHC-NU), which have been validated and used to identify health climate patterns in families in Western populations. To extend the use of the scales to Asian settings, this study aimed to adapt and validate the instruments for use in the multi-ethnic population of Singapore, accounting for language and cultural differences.

Towards a Parsimonious Pathway Model of Modifiable and Mediating Risk Factors Leading to Diabetes Risk.

Modifiable risk factors are of interest for chronic disease prevention. Few studies have assessed the system of modifiable and mediating pathways leading to diabetes mellitus. We aimed to develop a pathway model for Diabetes Risk with modifiable Lifestyle Risk factors as the start point and Physiological Load as the mediator.

Examining the heterogeneity inexcess risks of coronary heart disease, stroke, dialysis, and lower extremity amputation associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus across demographic subgroups in an Asian population: A population-based matched cohort study.

Aims: To examine whether the excess risks of coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke, dialysis, and lower extremity amputation (LEA) associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) differ across age, sex, and ethnicity in Singapore.

Methods: Using a 10-year administrative data, we matched individuals with T2DM using nearest neighbour matching, to those without, in 1:2 ratio. To examine whether the excess risks were heterogeneous across age, sex, and ethnicity, we generated interaction terms of age, sex, and ethnicity with T2DM status in Cox proportional hazard (PH) models.

Differential Health Care Use, Diabetes-Related Complications, and Mortality Among Five Unique Classes of Patients With Type 2 Diabetes in Singapore: A Latent Class Analysis of 71,125 Patients.

Objective: With rising health care costs and finite health care resources, understanding the population needs of different type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patient subgroups is important. Sparse data exist for the application of population segmentation on health care needs among Asian T2DM patients. We aimed to segment T2DM patients into distinct classes and evaluate their differential health care use, diabetes-related complications, and mortality patterns.

Epidemiologic Characteristics of Multimorbidity and Sociodemographic Factors Associated With Multimorbidity in a Rapidly Aging Asian Country.

Importance: Multimorbidity is a growing health care problem in aging societies and is strongly associated with epidemiologic characteristics and sociodemographic factors. Knowledge of these associations is important for the design of effective preventive and management strategies.

Objectives: To determine the association between multimorbidity and sociodemographic factors (age, socioeconomic status [SES], sex, and race/ethnicity) and the association between mental health diseases and physical diseases, as well as their implications for the types and costs of health care use.