MORE?than 50 000 Barbadians are hypertensive.
Speaking yesterday as the fourth annual Diabetes Global Village Exposition opened at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre, Professor Trevor Hassell said that 20 per cent of the entire population, “that is 54 000 people”, are hypertensive.
Before an audience that included president of the Diabetes Association of Barbados, John Grace, and chairman of the Barbados Diabetes Foundation, Dr Oscar Jordan, Hassell noted that by the age of 45, half of all Barbadians would suffer from hypertension.
Hassell, who is chairman of the National Commission for Chronic Non-Communicable Diseases, said that three-fifths of all Barbadian women and one-third of Barbadian men were overweight.
“Six per cent or some nearly 16 000 Barbadians suffer from diabetes and at age 45 years and older, 16 per cent of the population will suffer from diabetes,” he said.
Hassell told dozens of Barbadians and sponsors at the expo that the cost to the country of chronic disease and their complications of blindness, amputations and kidney failure, was staggering, stating it was estimated that more than five per cent of Barbados’ Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was spent on chronic diseases.
The former president of the Caribbean Cardiac Society said that in the 2001 estimates of expenditure, $76 million was earmarked to be spent on diabetes and $46 million on hypertension.
“It is estimated that 65 per cent of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital’s annual budget is spent on chronic diseases and more than $50 million, 65-70 per cent of the drug service budget, is spent on chronic diseases, again mostly for diabetes and hypertension,” he said.
Hassell thinks that all policy decisions taken in Barbados should consider the health aspect of those decisions.
“The challenges posed by diabetes and the other chronic diseases are therefore a challenge for the entire society.
The reality is that all ministries should therefore be a health ministry,” he said.
Hassell said the commission had been significantly involved in a National Nutrition Improvement and Population Salt Reduction Programme. He said there was an emphasis on salt reduction resulting from the fact that 54 000 Barbadians suffered with hypertension “which if uncontrolled will cause about half of all heart disease and strokes”.
“Best evidence indicates that at any given time blood pressure will not be well controlled in about 40 000 Barbadians suffering from hypertension.
“Salt reduction will significantly contribute to lowering blood pressure levels and better control of hypertension,” he said.
Hassell announced that the Healthy Caribbean Coalition in partnership with LIME?would shortly be launching a Caribbean-wide chronic disease educational campaign using text messaging, Facebook and other methods of communciation.
