Transiting Out of Full-Time National Service: A Qualitative Study of Barriers and Motivators of Weight Change in Young Adult Men in Singapore.

Higher prevalence of obesity in men compared with women, particularly among those 18 to 40 years of age, has been observed in Singapore. We explored young men's perceptions of weight change after transiting out of National Service (NS) over a 12-month period and sought to understand the underlying drivers. In-depth interviews, guided by the Health Belief Model (HBM), were conducted with young men 12 months after they had completed full-time NS. Six constructs from the HBM, namely, perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits, perceived barriers, cues to action, and perceived self-efficacy, were utilized to guide the analysis. Thematic analysis revealed that participants generally perceived a gain in body weight after the transition and attributed this to decreased exercise-related physical activity (PA) levels and increased consumption of unhealthy food. However, many did not display immediate concerns nor view leading a healthy lifestyle as priority, citing time constraints, inertia to comply, or lack of access to sports facilities and healthy food options as barriers. Healthy lifestyle behaviors, mainly PA, were mostly pursued for physical health and appearance. Motivators toward a healthy lifestyle tended to be internal factors such as self-motivation, personal preference, and habit, whereas external motivators included peer or familial influence and environmental factors. Our findings align with key concepts of the HBM and suggest a need to educate young men transiting out of NS on lifestyle, weight, and health, in particular addressing their misconceptions.

SARS-CoV-2 in migrant worker dormitories: Geospatial epidemiology supporting outbreak management.

BACKGROUND: Migrant worker dormitories-residential complexes where 10-24 workers share living spaces-account for the majority of cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection in Singapore. To prevent overspill of transmission to the wider population, starting in early April 2020, residents were confined to their dormitories while measures were put in place to arrest the spread of infection. This descriptive study presents epidemiological data for a population of more than 60 000 migrant workers living in two barracks-style and four apartment-style dormitories located in western Singapore from April 3 to June 10, 2020. METHODS: Our report draws from data obtained over the first 50 days of outbreak management in order to describe SARS-CoV-2 transmission in high-density housing environments. Cumulative counts of SARS-CoV-2 cases and numbers of housing units affected were analyzed to report the harmonic means of harmonic means of doubling times and their 95% confidence intervals (CI). RESULTS: Multiple transmission peaks were identified involving at least 5467 cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection across six dormitories. Our geospatial heat maps gave an early indication of outbreak severity in affected buildings. We found that the number of cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection doubled every 1.56 days (95% CI 1.29-1.96) in barracks-style buildings. The corresponding doubling time for apartment-style buildings was 2.65 days (95% CI 2.01-3.87). CONCLUSIONS: Geospatial epidemiology was useful in shaping outbreak management strategies in dormitories. Our results indicate that building design plays an integral role in transmission and should be considered in the prevention of future outbreaks.