- 85% Singaporeans have suffered from head and body pain, with nearly half (42%) suffering weekly from body pain
- 1 in 2 suffer in silence, more commonly men (61%) than women (46%); one-third delay pain relief by weeks or even longer
- 6 in 10 parents believe that pain makes it harder for them to listen and help their children with everyday tasks
- Compared to the rest of the world, Singaporeans have amongst the lowest knowledge around pain relief medicines
GSK Consumer Healthcare unveiled the Southeast Asia’s 2017 Global Pain Index (GPI) on 20th June 2017.
It is a unique global study that aims to examine people’s attitude towards head and body pain, and also evaluate its resulting economic and societal impact. This event brought together leading experts in the field, for exploring and deliberating regional and local findings related to socio-economic impact of pain, including how it impacts economic output and performance, as well as personal life and parenting.
Panelists included Dr. Yeo Sow Nam (Director of The Pain Specialist, Mount Elizabeth Hospital), Professor Eric Finkelstein (Health Services Research Program, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School), Dr Wong Li Lian (Registered Pharmacist, Department of Pharmacy, NUS) and Kelly Latimer (Fitness enthusiast and new mum).
Study was commissioned by GSK Consumer Healthcare, an associate of GlaxoSmithKline plc. U.K., which is one of world’s largest consumer healthcare companies. It was conducted by Edelman Intelligence, which surveyed 19,000 adults across 32 countries including Singapore.
Objective of the survey was to investigate the impact of body and head pain on all aspects of a sufferer’s life, from workplace productivity to relationships with family and friends. It resulted in some interesting revelations, such as the fact that Southeast Asian countries have the highest population that suffers with everyday pain. It also brought to light shocking facts about how Singaporeans ignore, power through or delay treatment of their pain, and which then results in an avoidable cost to the economy (of approximately 2% of annual GDP) due to missed work days and reduced workplace productivity.
Heather Pelier, Southeast Asia Area Marketing Director for Pain Relief and Respiratory, GSK Consumer Healthcare opened the discussion by explaining how pain has impacted almost everyone, and can hamper a person’s ability to live and work longer and lead a holistic life. She also added, "As a worldwide leader in pain relief, this drives us to better understand people’s pain and be a part of the solution that helps reduce its social and economic impact on people across the world."
Professor Eric Finkelstein, an expert in the field, mentioned that everyday pain has significant emotional and economic impact on people’s lives and economy. To illustrate his point, he shared some key statistics from this research, such as the finding that untreated or delayed pain related ailments result in financial costs to Singapore that are close to S$8.4 billion, mostly in the form of annual productivity losses. Further, study also estimates similar costs for Southeast Asian economies to be close to USD 44.6 billion.
Surprisingly, for a nation of academic achievers, Singaporeans appear to have amongst the lowest levels of knowledge around medicines available for pain relief and treatment: including dosing (24%), potential risks (15%), side effects (15%), ingredients (11%) or interactions with other medicines (10%). Further, majority of people have been observed to be self-diagnosing the causes of their pain, and almost half of the times end up in treating their head or body pains with non-prescription pain relief options. This is particularly worrying, given that those who are self-diagnosing also have low levels of knowledge around medication and high usage of non-prescription drugs that they commonly use, which could be placing them at a health-related risks and complications in the future. However, good news is that 6 in 10 Singaporeans are interested in learning more about their medicines, given the right avenue and opportunity to educate themselves.
It was also highlighted that pain can affect relationships, and ...
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