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  • 11 months ago
More people are consuming alcohol, but there is a notable rise when it comes to women. It's based on a recent survey which also revealed increases in tobacco use among the adult population.


At this time, the Ministry of Health is placing the burden of choice of individuals, as opposed to legislative changes.


Alicia Boucher has the details.
Transcript
00:00Last year, the Ministry of Health completed the second phase of the Pan American Health
00:04Organization and the World Health Organization's STEP survey, which had a target size of 5,000
00:11people with 4,052 respondents ages 18 to 69.
00:16The purpose of the survey was to monitor future risk of non-communicable diseases within the
00:21population.
00:22Director of the NCD unit at the Ministry, Dr. Maria Claperton, told the Joint Select
00:27Committee on Social Services that a 2011 survey was used comparatively to gauge the trajectory
00:34of the population for alcohol.
00:37The recent survey looked at consumption within a 30-day period.
00:41We found a prevalence of 51.5%, 59.6% in males and 43.4% females.
00:52What we noted here was that in 2011, the prevalence of alcohol consumption was 40.6%, so there
01:00was a 10.9% increase between 2011 and 2024.
01:06And with respect to consumption patterns, it was observed that even though males consumed
01:11more alcohol than females, we noted a significant increase in the consumption of alcohol among
01:18females and this was found to be an increase of 12.5%.
01:22Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Roshan Parasram, highlighted that alcohol is linked to a number
01:28of NCDs.
01:29It has been associated, now clearly in the literature, for the development of certain
01:34types of cancers, for example, and alcohol by itself is a risk factor for certain mental
01:40health diseases as well.
01:41For the first time, mental health was factored into the survey.
01:45So with respect to the persons who responded in terms of symptoms for depression within
01:51the past 12 months of administering the survey, we found a prevalence of 13.6%, with the larger
01:59proportion being among females as opposed to males.
02:03The rate of consumption for tobacco was 21.3% and this activity was higher in males than
02:09in females.
02:10Five risk factors were used to forecast the burden of NCDs in the country over the next
02:15decade – daily smoking, low physical activity, elevated blood pressure readings, overweight
02:21and low fruit and vegetable intake.
02:24And we found that 1.6% of the population had zero of these risk factors, whereas 38.4%
02:37of the population had three or more of these five risk factors.
02:42Minister of Health Terence de Alzing said many steps have been taken to tackle the NCD
02:47epidemic in the country, including banning sugar-sweetened drinks in schools, giving
02:52out-at-home blood glucose monitors, the decentralization of care, promoting breastfeeding, etc.
02:59But he is making his stance clear concerning suggestions for restrictions by way of policies
03:04and legislation to curb the consumption of unhealthy products.
03:08We have no plans to legislate what people eat.
03:13We ask people to make the wise decisions and Dr Claperton can tell you we have done a lot
03:20of work in how to read labels, what is the salt content in french fries, 16 teaspoons
03:27of sugar in one soft drink, when your average daily intake should be what, six?
03:33De Alzing also said that his ministry has no planned policy to restrict advertising
03:39on alcohol.
03:40Alicia Boucher, TV6 News.
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