Adverse childhood events could cost Singapore about $1.2b a year: Study

Impact across a person’s lifespan leads to higher healthcare costs, productivity losses

- Shermaine Ang

People who have gone through traumatic experiences in their childhood, such as emotional neglect or parental death or separation, could cost Singapore about $1.18 billion a year in absenteeism, reduced productivity and use of healthcare resources.

This is one of the key findings of a recent study by the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) and KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH) on the economic and social costs of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in Singapore.

The impact of such events which happen during the first 18 years of life continues across a person’s lifespan and leads to higher costs of healthcare and productivity losses at work, said the researchers in a statement on July 16.

Dr Mythily Subramaniam, assistant chairman of IMH’s medical board (research), said the study is the first to establish the economic cost of ACEs in the Singapore population.

The healthcare and productivity cost for a person who had at least one ACE was $767 more every year compared with a person who had no such experience, and $2,168 more for someone who faced three or more ACEs.

The latest study is part of the Singapore Mental Health Study started in 2016 to find out the prevalence of mental disorders in Singapore. The earlier study found that nearly two in three adults here had experienced at least one stressful or traumatic event from birth to age 18.

The latest study was published in June 2024 in the journal Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, And Policy. It involved surveys conducted between 2016 and 2018 with a representative sample of 4,441 Singapore residents from the earlier study. They were asked about ACEs such as bullying, witnessing domestic violence, and living with family members who had mental illness or were in jail.