Minister of Health and Wellness Dr. Michael Darville announced today that the Ministry of Health and Wellness will launch a new wellness unit tomorrow in response to the “startling” statistics outlined in a 2019 STEPS survey, which shows that nearly 70 percent of respondents were either overweight or obese, nearly 30 percent were hypertensive and about half reported excessive alcohol use.
The survey was taken between January and April 2019 and involved 2,365 participants between the ages of 18 and 69.
During a communication in the House of Assembly, Dr. Darville said, “Twenty-nine point three (29.3) percent of respondents were diagnosed with hypertension and seven percent never had their blood pressure checked.
“The survey revealed that less than 60 percent that were hypertensive were actually taking medication as prescribed.”
He said 40 percent of the participants who were noncompliant with medication had elevated blood pressure readings at the time of the survey.
Also, about nine percent of persons with elevated readings denied having a diagnosis of hypertension.
Turning to diabetes, the minister said 12.8 percent reported that they were diabetic and some 22.7 percent reported that they had never had blood sugar checked.
He said less than 45 percent reported that they were taking medications for diabetes.
“About 12 percent of participants diagnosed with diabetes had elevated fasting blood sugar readings at the time of the survey,” Dr. Darville continued.
“Almost six percent with raised blood sugar denied the diagnosis.”
Based on the body mass index, the survey found that 23.8 percent of participants had normal weight, 25.4 percent were classified as overweight and 43.4 percent were classified as being obese with a BMI of over 40.
“The rate of physical inactivity was such that three in ten did not meet the global recommendations for sufficient movement and when totaling their total body of daily movement, it was inadequate,” Dr. Darville added.
He said alcohol consumption was also relatively high.
“About half of the respondents drank three to seven alcoholic beverages per week for the 30 days leading up to the survey,” Dr. Darville said.
He said 30 percent of the respondents reported being lifetime abstainers and 17.6 percent drank six or more standard drinks on one occasion 30 days before survey.
Another 17.4 percent reported that they smoked daily and 71.1 percent said they never smoked.
He said, of some concern 12.1 percent were exposed to second hand smoke at home and 17.4 percent were exposed at work.
The minister said while the findings are startling, they are not surprising to the medical community.
“All is not lost,” the he continued.
Dr. Darville said among other things, the ministry will lead a comprehensive response to findings of the survey, strengthen healthcare infrastructure, purchase medications to treat common medical conditions and establish a non-communicable disease registry to track those with applicable conditions.
Dr. Darville added that policies will be put in place to reduce the consumption of salt, sugar, alcohol and tobacco.