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Local research finds HDB residents are lonelier and less active

Brief translation:

Citing the Chin Swee Study conducted by CARE in partnership with the Ministry of Health, this article notes that residents living in rental flats are relatively isolated and even unwilling to participate in medical examinations. The study found that stronger social networks were associated with a lower likelihood of depression as well as loneliness.

Click here for the article (in Mandarin)

Detailed translation:

Local research finds that rental flat residents are lonelier and do less exercise
Feeling that their living environment is poor and lacking a sense of belonging, local research finds that rental flat residents are lonelier and are not very willing to participate in health screenings.

A research team from SGH, Duke-NUS Medical School and Institute of Mental Health (IMH) surveyed 15 HDB flats from 2 residential areas in 2016 to understand the views of residents aged 60 years and above regarding their living environment, so as to attempt to analyse whether house type affects their lifestyle and health.

Among these flats, 7 blocks comprised of all owner-occupied flats, 6 blocks are wholly rental flats and 2 blocks comprised of mixed owner-occupied and rental flats. 528 people participated in this survey. Among them, 70% have at most post-secondary education only, 1 out of 3 have family income not more than $1500, a far cry from the national family income median reported in 2016.

Results showed that among rental flat residents staying in mixed blocks, 40% felt that their environment was poorer, slightly better than residents staying in wholly rental flat blocks (37.8%). But only 24.5% of residents staying in owner-occupied flats felt this way.
What is more important is that the feeling that their living environment is not ideal will almost affect residents’ pursuit of a healthy lifestyle. For example, those who felt that their neighbourhood conditions are poor are more unlikely to participate in regular health screenings and exercise.

This research report was published in last year’s Environmental Research and Public Health journal.

The research pointed out that people’s feelings towards their neighbourhood will affect their willingness to walk and exercise more. Except having the infrastructure to encourage people to walk, good living conditions in neighbourhoods would allow people to feel that they have targets and meanings in their lives, and therefore be more willing to take responsibility of their health. Feelings of loneliness would deepen, causing them to do less exercise.

The report also analyses that, in general, cardiovascular screenings are done in the family medicine clinics or polyclinics in the neighbourhoods. The density of these clinics is high. Unlike blood pressure measurements which are easy to do, these screenings require blood taking and lab tests. Hence, it is necessary to prioritise the cardiovascular screenings for the groups who not willing to walk more.

Poor environments do not let residents feel safe. It is difficult to build social cohesion with high mobility.

The presence of many anti-crime alarms, garbage and smells do not allow rental flat residents to feel safe. They also feel that their neighbourhoods lack a sense of reliability.
The report states that “Rental flats belong to the low-income level in comparison to the owner-occupied flats which belong to the higher-income level. Even though their exteriors look almost the same, the public spaces in the former may not be that well maintained. Garbage and smells everywhere may cause some difference in the environment.

This report also states that as the people living in rental flats are always changing, it is more difficult to build social cohesion and have a sense of safety, even though it is situated within a small area. People who live in different blocks do not see one another often, plus rental flat residents have a feeling of being excluded, and hence do not really interact with others. This increases their negative feelings towards their living environments.

Disease-stricken lonely old women feel that their living environments are poorer
This research finds that women are more sensitive to their living environments as compared to men. This is especially so among women who have no one to take care of them and they are more likely to feel that their living place is poor.
Among these women, those who are long stayers (>8 years) in rental flats, single with no religion, aged more than 75 years, have more than 3 persons in the household, have many serious diseases and require caregiving or have feelings of loneliness are more likely to feel that their living environment is poor.