The Healthy Caribbean Coalition (HCC) is

calling for radical changes over the next decade to address childhood obesity

in Jamaica and the wider region.

HCC Policy Advisor, Nicole Foster, said

that 25.1 per cent of Jamaican children between the ages of five and nine and

19.9 per cent of children, ages 10 to 19, will be obese by the year 2030, if

drastic measures are not taken.

She was citing statistics from the first

Global Atlas on Childhood Obesity, published by the World Obesity Federation in

October 2019, during a recent JIS Think Tank.

She noted further that information from the

Caribbean Public Health Authority (CARPHA) indicates that the region “has an

overweight and obesity prevalence that is widespread across both males and

females and of great concern is the fact that the region has a serious and

growing problem of childhood obesity.”

Foster said that Jamaica and the Eastern

Caribbean States were identified as having just a two per cent chance of

meeting the World Health Organization (WHO) 2025 goal of having no increase in

obesity prevalence, all things being equal. Barbados, Guyana and Trinidad were

all reported to have an even lower one per cent chance of reaching the 2025

goal.

The Bahamas, Dominica and St. Vincent and

the Grenadines were among the top 20 countries that were identified as having

or acquiring a significant childhood obesity problem in the next decade.

Foster asserted that efforts are being made

by regional bodies to tackle the issue at the policy level.

She said that emphasis is being placed on

addressing overweight and unhealthy diets, which have been identified by the

WHO and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), as being among the

modifiable risk factors for non-communicable diseases (NCD).

“The Port of Spain Declaration Evaluation

Report that was done in 2016 identified diet as one of the major contributors

to the region’s overweight and obesity problem and this is based in large part

on our nutrition transition. We have moved to using more processed and

ultra-processed foods,” she noted.

Foster said CARPHA’s six-point policy

package, which sets out priority areas for action at the Caribbean Community

(CARICOM) level, has cited front-of-package nutrition labelling as a key

intervention in the region’s efforts to tackle childhood obesity.

“This is because it (front-of-package

labelling) is seen as being an important part of creating the type of enabling

environment that is needed to allow for the ordinary man on the street to make

healthier choices,” she explained.

Meanwhile, Foster said CARPHA has

identified NCDs such as cancers, diabetes, stroke and hypertension, as the

region’s leading cause of death.

An estimated seven out of 10 persons have

died from NCDs, of which the majority were premature deaths in persons between

ages 30 and 70 years.

PAHO reports that the Caribbean has the

highest premature NCD mortality rate in the entire Americas, with data from

2010 to 2016 showing that 78 per cent of untimely deaths were due to these

chronic conditions.

The Port of Spain Declaration was created

by CARICOM Heads of Government at a special regional summit in 2007, and sets

out measures to tackle the NCD epidemic, in recognition that NCDs have become a

national development issue.

An evaluation was subsequently done to determine the status of implementation.

— JIS