Saint Lucia has an alcohol consumption rate that is one of the highest in the Caribbean and has seen an increase in women drinkers.
At the same time, there’s concern about tobacco use among the population.
The disclosure came from Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr. Sharon Belmar-George in a statement to mark World Health Day.
” Of concern is the significant increase in women drinkers from 2012 to 2019,” Belmar-George stated.
Aside from alcohol consumption, the CMO revealed that tobacco use remains high at 25.2%.
And Belmar-George noted that a 2019 Behaviour Risk Factor Survey in Saint Lucia indicated that chronic non-communicable diseases related deaths were significantly high at 82%.
“These health conditions are preventable and related to our lifestyles,” the CMO noted.
In addition, the survey indicated that 83.2% of the population does not meet the World Health Organization requirement for servings of daily fruits and vegetables.
“We note higher levels of salt consumption in younger individuals aged 18-44 years,” Belmar-George stated.
However, on a positive note, the senior health official observed that physical activity increased nationally and individually.
Nevertheless, she explained that the data called for urgent collective action to improve health.
The CMO’s complete address appears below:
well small quantities of alcohol consumed on a daily basis have been found to reduce the risk for stroke and heart attack
There needs to be a special thrust to have all schools adhere to the standards associated with Health Promoting Schools.
This is one way to tackle the crisis with non-communicable diseases (NCDs).
This is how Saint Lucians numb the pain of economic hardship. What do you expect when a so called caring government couldn’t cushion the increase in basic commodities such as bread which is consumed heavily by the poor, what do you expect when the Massy supermarket chain is permitted to rob Saint Lucians blind, in some instances with outrageous markups on their goods. What do you expect when prices of goods and services only go UP in this country on the basis of the increases in fuel prices but when there are significant decreases in the cost of fuel we the people get no reprieve in bus fares, price of bread and so on. In order to remain sane in this country most of us struggling Lucians must be drunk 24/7.
Things are so hard in the country with almost 80 percent of the working poor earn 3 to 5 EC dollars . So it is smoking cocaine, weed, tobacco and drinking alcohol