NASSAU, BAHAMAS — A 2019 National Non-Communicable Disease (NCD) Risk Factor STEPS Survey has outlined what Health and Wellness Minister Dr Michael Danville described yesterday as “startling” findings regarding poor individual health in the country and major gaps in this nation’s public healthcare system.
Darville told Parliament yesterday that the 2019 National Non- Communicable Disease (NCD) Risk Factor STEPS Survey was completed during the last administration, where a preliminary report was given however Hurricane Dorian, the COVID-19 pandemic, along with some re-analysis of the data had delayed a formal release of the report.
The STEPS Survey was conducted between January and April of 2019 before Hurricane Dorian and the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey involved some 2,365 persons ages 18-69.
“The findings were startling and highlighted individual risk, major gaps in our public healthcare system which has failed to adequately address health inequities,” said Dr Darville.
Darville noted that 29.3 percent of respondents in the survey were diagnosed with hypertension and seven percent never had their blood pressure measured. The survey revealed that less than 60 percent of respondents with hypertension were actually taking medications as prescribed. The Survey also revealed that roughly 40 percent of the participants were non-compliant with medication and had elevated high blood pressure readings at the time of the survey.
According to the survey, 12.8 percent of respondents reported that they were diabetic and some 22.7 percent of respondents reported that they had never had their blood sugar measured. Less than 45 percent of respondents were actually taking medications for their diagnosed diabetes.
The survey also found that almost 70 percent of participants were either overweight or obese. “The rate of physical inactivity was such that three in ten persons did not meet the minimum global recommendations for sufficient movement when totaling their daily movements at home, at work, and recreationally,” Darville noted.
He added: “About half of the respondents drank a minimum of three to seven alcoholic beverages per week for the 30 days leading up to the survey. Thirty percent of all respondents reported being lifetime abstainers and 17.6 percent of respondents had drank six or more standard drinks on one occasion during the 30 days before the survey.”
Despite the findings, Darville maintained that “all is not lost” as he noted that The Ministry of Health & Wellness will lead a comprehensive, evidence-based, varied, and multi-pronged response to the findings of the survey.
“My Ministry will implement many modern treatment and management guidelines for the prevention of cardiovascular disease starting at the primary healthcare setting,” he said.
“We will continue to strengthen health system infrastructure across the country with a specific focus on the implementation of new digital platforms and monitoring Apps aimed at meeting the healthcare needs of our patients wherever they are. By way of our health care partners we intend to purchase cost-effective quality safe medicines to treat common medical conditions and establish a Non-Communicable Diseases registry to track the health and experience of persons with hypertension, diabetes, and kidney disease among other conditions,” said Darville.
Darville noted that the Ministry of Health and Wellness will today launch its new Wellness Unit whose main goal is to promote wellness across the country by putting health back in the hands of the people.
“This new unit will support a sustained program at the community level, engaging duly registered and qualified para-health and allied health providers to support the delivery of clinical care with mental health counseling, nutrition counseling and physical fitness training and instruction. Through the Wellness Unit, my Ministry intends to reach Bahamians everywhere using innovative approaches to fight for the health of ordinary citizens, particularly Bahamians suffering from hypertension and diabetes and yes aim to transform our obesogenic environment to a leptogenic environment in order to begin the journey back to a normal BMI.”
Darville also noted that while the findings of the survey were startling it did not reveal anything new that the medical community was unaware of. “What it did do, however, was a help to qualify the factors that contribute to our poor health status and the local evidence we all needed to launch an aggressive push toward restoring the health of the Bahamian people,” said Darville.
