By Caribbean Medical News Staff
The Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) has brought together a regional Task Force to develop a Plan of Action to tackle childhood obesity and provide a comprehensive public health response. CARPHA Executive Director, Dr C James Hospedales said, “We have set ourselves an ambitious goal, to halt and reverse a rise in child and adolescent obesity in the Caribbean by 2025. To achieve this, we will focus on technical cooperation with our member states to support the implementation of specific measures, paying attention to reducing obesogenic environments.”
Even though the health status of the Region’s children and young people has significantly improved in recent times, the Caribbean still continues to experience a surge in “childhood” obesity. Research shows that at least 1 in every 5 of our children are overweight and are in danger of developing non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases later in life. This will result in higher lifetime health costs for the individual and the state. Although the Caribbean is not facing a unique public health challenge, it has the undesirable distinction of having rates of prevalence that are close to or above the global average.
After the 12th Executive Board Meeting held at the Fort Young Hotel in Dominica, CARPHA presented its 2014 – 2019 Plan of Action for Promoting Healthy Weights in the Caribbean: Prevention and Control of Childhood Obesity to Ms Maynese Titre who is a Nutritionist at Dominica’s Ministry of Health.
Research shows that like many other countries, Dominica has a problem with increasing body mass index (BMI) in children and adults, although less so than most of its Caribbean counterparts. In response to this, officials at the Ministry of Health stated their intention to use the Plan of Action to assist Dominica in reducing childhood obesity and obesogenic environments.
It is projected that by 2019, governments of the Region, with assistance from the CARPHA, will be able to:
• provide children with more supportive environments for physical activity and healthy eating;
• Provide appropriate incentives to discourage unhealthy consumption patterns and to create and encourage healthier dietary choices;
• Empower communities to embrace active living and healthful eating;
• Provide parents and children with accurate information about food, nutrition and exercise to enable informed decisions;
• Provide the necessary care and support to our children who are affected by overweight/obesity, and to ensure that they are safeguarded from bias and stigmatization associated with their condition;
• Ensure that systems within government have the capability to mount effective responses and that multi-sectoral cooperation is fostered;
• Have data available for tracking the movement of the epidemic and for measuring and assessing results.
“The responsibility for protecting the future of our children should be shared by all sectors, both public and private; by all levels of government, families and civil society at large. In fact, there is a critical need to collectively safeguard our future development,” said Dr Hospedales.
