Health Ministry Continues to Promote Healthy Lifestyle Choices to Reduce NCDs

Health and Wellness Minister, Dr. the Hon. Christopher Tufton, says the Ministry continues to promote healthy lifestyle choices, to reduce non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in the population.

Addressing the Ministry’s Corporate Wellness Challenge – 2.0 “8×8” Edition, launched on Thursday (June 19), at Devon House in Kingston, the Minister said NCDs are driven by a combination of genetic, environmental and lifestyle factors.

“It is common knowledge that we are more afflicted and affected by lifestyles than we are by genes or some other natural causes. NCDs kill more people each year than COVID did during the period of its advent. We don’t make as much of the lifestyle diseases; it really should be declared a global pandemic of sorts,” he said.

Dr. Tufton said NCDs are a major public health challenge and are the leading causes for premature death.

“When we look at the statistics around premature mortality, meaning people dying below the age of 75, which, based on our epidemiology profile, we are expected to live to, we are losing 296,000-man years of lives lost, meaning people dying below 75 years, because of early onset of illnesses,” he said.

Dr. Tufton noted that beyond the health implications, NCDs also have a negative impact on productivity.

“Often, we don’t make the connection between that and the corporate world. We don’t make the connection between low productivity (due to illness) because people have hypertension and diabetes and have to go to the health centre and cannot produce as well as they ought to. These are real issues,” he emphasised.

Dr. Tufton said prevention and control is the best approach to handling these health issues.

This includes healthy lifestyle habits, such as regular exercise and balanced diet, and healthcare interventions. This is done through regular screening and treatment to manage NCDs.

“Wellness is a lifestyle. It is a habit; it must come naturally and everyone must see themselves invested in that… . You can enjoy wellness; it is therapy. Lifestyle should be a very important focus to look at how we achieve the broader holistic concept of wellness. Wellness is about green spaces, nutrition, mental health, safe spaces, screening, physical activity. It really is about a holistic lifestyle concept,” he said.

Some of the key risk factors for NCDs include smoking and tobacco use, physical inactivity, unhealthy diet, and excessive alcohol consumption.

The most common types of NCDs include cardiovascular diseases, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases, and diabetes.