CGH and Abbott will launch the Nutritional Health for the Elderly Reference Centre and conduct Asia's largest clinical study on elderly nutrition.
CGH and Abbott will launch the Nutritional Health for the Elderly Reference Centre and conduct Asia's largest clinical study on elderly nutrition.
On 31 August 2017, Changi General Hospital (CGH) and Abbott announced their partnership, supported by Singapore Economic Development Board, to set up a Nutritional Health for the Elderly Reference Centre (NHERC) in Singapore.
As the centre's first project, CGH and Abbott are working with SingHealth Polyclinics (SHP) to conduct Asia's largest clinical study of its kind to evaluate the effects of nutrition management in the elderly in Singapore.
The centre aims to drive regional leadership in elderly nutrition by studying the association between nutrition and health outcomes, establishing nutrition standards for the elderly in Asia, and developing scalable solutions that are customised to the Asian context.
"We are glad to support the collaboration between CGH and Abbott, as it is a good demonstration of developing innovative healthcare solutions out of Singapore. We hope this will help build the necessary capabilities to drive the transformation of healthcare towards evidence-based and preventive models, for Singapore and beyond," said Ms Ho Weng Si, Director, Biomedical Sciences, Singapore Economic Development Board.
Under-nutrition: A common condition among the elderly
"Under-nutrition in older adults is a common condition that can affect up to 35 per cent of community-dwelling elderly who are admitted to hospitals. Under-nutrition has a ripple effect on individuals and the healthcare system at large as it puts patients at increased risk for complications such as infections, muscle loss, longer hospital stays, and increase chances of readmission," said Adjunct Assistant Professor Samuel Chew, Senior Consultant, Department of Geriatric Medicine at CGH.
Left to right: Ms Lydia Tan (Director, Centre for Innovation, CGH); Dr Lee Chien Earn (CEO, Changi General Hospital and Deputy Group Chief Executive Officer (Regional Health System), SingHealth); Dr Low Yen Ling (Director of R&D, Abbott Nutrition R&D Asia Pacific Centre; Ms Magdalin Cheong (Head/ Deputy Director, Department of Dietetic and Food Services, CGH); Adj Asst Prof Samuel Chew (Senior Consultant, Department of Geriatric Medicine, CGH); Dr Tan Ngiap Chuan (Family Physician and Director of Research, SHP)
Asian countries are ageing faster than other continents. In the last decade, Singapore's resident population has grown older with a higher number of elderly persons. By 2030, the number of Singaporeans aged 65 and above is projected to double to 900,000, which means 1 in 4 Singaporeans will be in that age group, up from 1 in 8 today.
"There is a pressing need to create a 'reference' database of measurements of the physical properties of the human body and ranges of biological markers related to nutrition for the local Asian population, to guide clinicians and researchers in determining nutritional ranges for the elderly in Singapore.
"These will be useful in the development of more accurate diagnosis, screening and monitoring of outcomes for treatment or intervention. The NHERC study aims to fill these gaps in knowledge of nutrition standards among the elderly in Asia, because dietary factors have significant impact on the health of older persons," added Adjunct Assistant Professor Samuel Chew.
The study will be the largest randomised controlled trial in Asia Pacific
About NHERC
The NHERC study is a large-scale prospective, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study to investigate the effects of nutrition management on community-dwelling elderly in Singapore. It will be conducted at the newly setup centre, located within CGH, which provides the clinical setting and expertise for collection of baseline data using screening tools. Study participants will be interviewed at the centre for nutrition-related assessments.
This will be the largest randomised controlled trial in the Asia Pacific region investigating the effects of nutritional supplementation in improving health outcomes, reducing hospital (re)admission rate and length of stay among elderly with nutritional deficiency aged 65 and above in Singapore.
"In Asia's fast ageing population today, nutrition plays a vital role in improving the health of elderly. Understanding their nutritional status, their behaviours toward nutrition and studying the effects of dietary modifications including usage of nutritional supplements will be key to achieve the desired nutrition goals for the elderly," said Dr Low Yen Ling, Director of Research & Development, Abbott Nutrition Asia Pacific Centre.
The study is recruiting 1,200 community-dwelling elderly aged 65 years and above who are ambulant, clinically healthy or with well-managed chronic diseases.
This story was first published in CARING, a Changi General Hospital magazine.
