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SINGAPORE: Under a new national strategy to inculcate healthier lifestyles in children, trained nurses and coaches will engage students based on questionnaires filled in by their parents.

Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said this in parliament on Wednesday (Feb 5) in response to questions from Members of Parliament about the recently announced Grow Well SG ����Dz�����������.��

The health guidelines for children will be conveyed to parents via the annual health screening programme in mainstream schools, and the process of screening and consulting with each child may take about 30 minutes, he added. 

Before the annual screening, parents of Primary 1 to Primary 3 students will fill in a lifestyle questionnaire to reflect on their child’s current lifestyle habits, said Mr Ong. 

The trained nurses and lifestyle coaches from the Health Promotion Board (HPB) will then review the responses with each student and offer suggestions to adopt a healthier lifestyle. 

The implementation of the plan taps on HPB and the Ministry of Education’s existing processes, and the government is not deploying additional manpower, said Mr Ong. 

“That said, it changes the way they do things, with a stronger focus on preventive care for children, and involving parents to develop and follow up on health plans,” he added. 

The annual questionnaire provided to parents will contain self-reported data on their children’s lifestyle habits. With these results, the government can monitor if the Grow Well SG programme is shifting habits, including screen time consumption, said Mr Ong. 

HPB has 100 staff members dedicated to engaging with schools, he said, in response to a supplementary question from Ms He Ting Ru (WP-Sengkang) about the potential additional workload. 

“For years, they have been going down to schools, doing health screenings, talking to the kids about lifestyle habits. But now, we deliberately develop a health plan for children with clearer guidelines, especially on screen time, and then through the school, engage the parents,” said Mr Ong. 

This makes the process “more systemised” but “hopefully more effective”, he added. 

The personalised health plans for Primary 1 to 3 students will comprise lifestyle change recommendations, school health screening results, vaccination reports and referrals to public healthcare institutions when needed, said the Ministry of Health (MOH) when the programme was announced. 

Parents can access their child’s health plan via HealthHub and, later this year, create a profile page for each child on Healthy 365 to receive personalised recommendations on building healthy habits. 

MOH is studying the progressive rollout of the health plan to include children from other age groups and will provide more details when ready, it said at the time. 

As part of the programme, guidelines on screen use will be introduced in schools, including preschools. MOE also provided more detailed guidelines on managing students’ use of smartphones and smartwatches in primary and secondary schools.

Many parents are “struggling a bit” with managing their children’s screen time, Mr Ong said. 

“They know they need to wean the kid off, especially during meal time. They wonder how,” he said. 

Online resources need to be improved, and MOH will discuss the issue with the Ministry of Social and Family Development, he added.