The Global Week for Action on NCDs commences on September 14th 2023, uniting civil society organisations and individuals worldwide in a collective call to action for governments to address the pressing issue of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs),
We’re thrilled to share a brief yet informative video featuring our Advocacy Officer, Michele Baker, who simplifies the concept of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs)
To move its You’re Sweet Enough advocacy work into policy, Lake Health and Wellbeing is gearing up to launch an educational video series on health policy change.
The four-part series will be launched in cooperation with the Ministry of Health and medical professionals to increase awareness of the importance and benefits of health policies that the Government of St. Kitts-Nevis can implement to reduce the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs).
It’s no secret that there is an increase in alarming statistics about rising obesity rates and NCDs worldwide. In response to these growing public health concerns, many countries are considering introducing health policies aimed at reducing the public’s exposure to NCD risk factors.
Popular health policies include taxes on unhealthy commodities like sugar- sweetened beverages, tobacco and alcohol. Policies around front-of-package food labeling are also championed to easily indicate to consumers which food products contain unhealthy substances like trans fats and are high in sugar, salt (sodium) and saturated fat.
These implemented measures have reduced the consumption of unhealthy products and the policy of taxation also generates revenue that can be reinvested into prevention programs for NCDs, such as physical activity initiatives or education about healthy eating habits.
A growing number of Caribbean countries are now monitoring these benefits. Countries in the region such as Bermuda, Grenada, Barbados, and Mexico are leading successful case studies of these health policies.
By working collaboratively with health leaders and the advocacy community, Lake Health and Wellbeing hopes to address local concerns around the effectiveness of policy change and prompt government leaders to drive action toward health policy education, research, and implementation. This series is expected to complement the government’s action plan for preventing non-communicable diseases (NCD) in St. Kitts and Nevis.
The health policy series will focus on Sugar and sweetened beverage taxes and explore four key themes through 60-second reels:
The educational reels can be viewed on Instagram and Facebook beginning March 20, 2023. New reels will be rolled out on April 3, 17, and May 1.
International Women’s Day is a time to celebrate the achievements of women and acknowledge the work that still needs to be done to promote gender equality. One area where gender disparities persist is in women’s health, particularly when it comes to non-communicable diseases (NCDs).
NCDs are responsible for more than two-thirds of all deaths worldwide, and in St Kitts and Nevis, they account for over 80% of deaths and illnesses. Women in the Federation are disproportionately affected by some NCDs, such as diabetes and cancer, and are also at risk of developing chronic reproductive illnesses such as fibroids, endometriosis and PCOS.
Women’s exposure to stress, which is often linked to the many roles they fill in society, can increase their risk of developing an NCD. Cultural barriers, gender stereotypes, and discrimination can also contribute to poor health outcomes for women.
To address these disparities, gender-sensitive health policies are necessary. These policies must be informed by research and take into account the unique needs and experiences of women. They should also focus on reducing disparities in health outcomes between different groups of women, such as those based on age and income.
Gender-sensitive health policies must prioritize access to essential health services and address the social and economic factors that contribute to poor health outcomes. This includes ensuring access to maternal and reproductive health services, mental health services, and services for NCDs.
International Women’s Day provides an opportunity to reflect on the progress made towards improving women’s health and renew our commitment to advancing gender equity. It is a reminder that women’s health is a human rights issue, and that everyone has a role to play in promoting gender equality and empowering women to take control of their health.
Let’s work together to create gender-sensitive health policies that are grounded in the principles of equity and inclusion, and prioritize women’s health in our personal and professional lives. By making healthy lifestyle choices, advocating for policies that promote women’s health, and supporting organizations that work towards improving women’s health outcomes, we can create a world where all women have access to the care they need to thrive.
The Ministry of Health in St. Kitts and Nevis and the Pan-American Health Organisation recently hosted the inaugural National Non-Communicable Diseases Conference, which was held from February 7th to 9th at the St. Kitts Marriott Resort.
The conference aimed to bring together government officials, health experts, civil society and private sector representatives to discuss non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and their impact on the country.
NCDs, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, and respiratory disease, are some of the biggest challenges facing global public health. They are responsible for a staggering 70% of all deaths worldwide and pose a major threat to human development and economic progress. With this in mind, the conference assessed the current NCD situation, established commitment from all sectors to contribute to efforts to reduce the impact of NCDs on St. Kitts and Nevis and provided stakeholders with the opportunity to contribute to the development of the Multi-sectoral Plan of Action for NCDs.
This event featured a range of presentations on various aspects of NCDs, including the impact of the pandemic on NCDs, innovative approaches to NCD prevention and management, and the role of civil society in advocacy and policy development.
Speakers included:
We were honoured to have been a speaker at this conference too. Our Programme Director, Abi Begho, delivered a presentation on Health Policy Advocacy and the Role of Civil Society. Begho discussed the importance of civil society organizations in advocating for NCD prevention and management policies that are equitable, evidence-based, and inclusive.
She also highlighted the role of civil society in raising awareness about NCDs, monitoring government performance, and engaging communities in NCD prevention and management efforts.
Additionally, during the opening ceremony special guests, Hon. Jahnel Nisbett, Minister of Health, Gender Affairs, Social Services & Community Development in Nevis and Hon. Dr. Terrance Drew, Prime Minister and Minister of Health, St Kitts and Nevis provided remarks.
Hon. Dr. Terrance Drew, highlighted the significance of the NCDs in the country as the leading cause of morbidity, accounting for 62% of all deaths and emphasized the need for a collaborative approach and funding for sustainable interventions to address NCDs. Additionally, the Prime Minister discussed the importance of promoting healthy living and implementing innovative interventions to address the NCD situation in the country. Whilst Hon Nisbett provided an important reminder that there is still much work left to be done to tackle NCDs and emphasized the significance of starting interventions early in the public’s lives to shape their future behaviour.
The conference was a valuable opportunity for participants to exchange ideas, share best practices, and work towards a shared goal of reducing the burden of NCDs. The discussions and insights generated at the conference will help inform future policy and action on NCDs, nationally.
In conclusion, the inaugural National Non-Communicable Diseases Conference was a successful and important event that brought together experts and stakeholders from across sectors to discuss the latest developments and strategies for preventing and managing NCDs. With the growing global burden of NCDs, it is crucial that we continue to work together to find effective solutions and build a healthier future for all.
From August to December 2022, we partnered with Sagicor through their new Helping Hands Programme to deliver a series of Chronic Disease Self-Management workshops in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and ICDF.
This initiative was of particular importance because non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are the major public health challenge in St Kitts and Nevis, and the region. Data shows that 54% of people in St Kitts and Nevis are living with a chronic health condition and 63% of deaths in the federation are due to NCDs. We need to do something to support those living with these conditions so they have the best outcome possible.
We know that when people are diagnosed with an NCD, they can feel hopeless, worried, scared and disempowered and it can seem like a significant burden because of the impact the condition can have on a person’s personal and professional life because of the ups and downs and unpredictability that can come from living with an NCD.
The six-week evidence-based chronic disease self-management programme aimed to address all these challenges by providing the tools to successfully manage an NCD by teaching effective self-management techniques such as communication skills, action planning, problem-solving, medication management, mindfulness and others. These techniques not only aim to ensure that patients live well whilst navigating their NCD, but to thrive.
The approach that was utilised for this project is the Stanford University Chronic Disease Self-Management Program (CDSMP). This is an evidence-based program that addresses common issues faced by people with chronic conditions. The program has been implemented in 19 countries around the globe showing the following benefits:
It was a pleasure to host these sessions which empowered and equipped participants to improve their health and wellbeing. Through this initiative, we hosted four six-week chronic disease self-management workshops reaching 60 people living with NCDs.
This partnership between Sagicor, the Ministry of Health, the Taiwan ICDs and ourselves, Lake Health and Wellbeing demonstrates the power of collaboration and utilising a whole-of-society approach to tackling important public health issues. Through this collaboration, the private sector, government, an international agency and a local NGO have come together to improve the health and wellbeing of the public, and we’re delighted to have been a part of this project. We would like to thank our project partners, it was a pleasure working with you all, and we look forward to future partnerships like these as they are much-needed.
In February 2021, we conducted a sugar-sweetened beverage survey which aimed to obtain the public’s opinion on topics related to sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) and non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Specifically, we measured the public’s opinion on the importance of the government addressing NCDs, how concerned individuals are about NCDs, and the public’s support for government policies to reduce SSB consumption, and we explored what SSBs the public consumes and how often they consume these.
The survey enabled us to collect baseline data on the public’s views of the above-mentioned issues and determine their frequency of SSB consumption to help inform the direction of our media and advocacy campaign.
To collect the required data, we developed a short survey. The public could complete the survey anonymously online or via a hard copy with assistance from trained enumerators. A total of 423 people completed the survey.
Our survey suggests that St Kitts and Nevis has a high rate of NCDs and that the public is very concerned about NCDs and strongly believes that the government has a role to play in improving the country’s health. Therefore, action is needed on NCDs, and reducing the public’s SSB consumption is just one of many approaches that can be explored to address these health issues as our data shows high levels of SSB consumption in our sample.
To reduce the public’s consumption of SSBs requires behaviour change, and this can be achieved through the introduction of SSB policies by the government. These policies include evidence-based and globally endorsed policies such as an SSB tax, restricting the sale of SSBs in and around schools and banning the marketing of SSBs to children. Our data suggest that there is some public support for these policies and further public support could be obtained if carefully designed public education campaigns are implemented. Although the survey data shows that the public would support certain policies, the data also indicates that the method used to raise awareness of these policies and the spokespeople utilised in any communication strategy should be carefully considered to ensure the success of any such campaign.
You can download our survey report and an infographic summarising our key findings by clicking on the images below.
From 22nd August to 5th September 2021, we hosted a No Sugar-Sweetened Beverage (SSB), Drink Water Challenge in collaboration with St Kitts and Nevis Ministry of Health. This challenge was part of the Ministry of Health’s seven-week SKN Moves campaign and aimed to provide a fun way to encourage the public to make healthier beverage choices.
Over forty people registered to take part in the challenge and over the two weeks, they tracked their water consumption using a water tracking app and submitted videos and pictures sharing their progress. Additionally, we set up a WhatsApp group to allow participants to encourage each other and to build a small community around the challenge.
Our group of participants did a great job, remaining committed to the challenge and after reviewing their water tracking app submissions and calculating their water consumption over the two weeks, we selected three winners.
On Thursday 23rd September, our winners were awarded a certificate and prizes from Hon. Akilah Bryon-Nisbett, the Minister for Health for St Kitts and Nevis, at the first annual SKN Moves Awards Ceremony.
In addition to our prize winners, other people were recognised for participating in other challenges that were organised over the seven-week SKN Moves campaign. These included:
We were delighted to attend this inaugural event to support our winners and also to hear speeches delivered by:
All three speakers highlighted the government’s commitment to tackling NCDs with SKN Moves being just one part of their strategy. Now in its second year, the SKN Moves initiative aims to promote the prevention and control of NCDs through three core pillars: healthy eating, regular exercise and age-appropriate health checks. Furthermore, SKN Moves is part of a wider programme, Caribbean Moves, which aims to tackle the high rate of NCDs in the region through a collective approach. In addition to highlighting the SKN Moves campaign, speakers also discussed the Government’s efforts to tackle the overconsumption of sugar-sweetened beverages through their national SSB policy which is in its final stages of development.
We applaud the Ministry of Health for continuing to push forward with developing this policy which features a collection of evidence-based approaches to reduce the public’s consumption of SSBs. We look forward to seeing this policy finalized and implemented.
We would like to say a big thank you to everyone who took part in our No SSB, Drink Water challenge and congratulations to all our winners.
We would also like to thank the Ministry of Health’s Health Promotion Unit for inviting us to become a member of this year’s SKN Moves Committee and Open Interactive for sponsoring our orientation session for our challenge participants. We look forward to next year’s campaign.
On 25th August 2021, as part of our You’re Sweet Enough week, we were delighted to host a panel discussion exploring an all-of-society approach to tackling non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and promoting healthy drinking and eating.
This event was part of a collaboration with the Ministry of Health and formed part of their seven-week SKN Moves campaign. Now in its second year, SKN Moves falls under the Caribbean Moves program which seeks to tackle non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in the region by focusing on healthy eating, physical activity, and age-appropriate health checks.
NCDs are the major public health challenge in St Kitts and Nevis Specifically, 54% of adults have at least one chronic illness, and before the pandemic, the Nevis Island Administration reported that 85% of hospital admissions were NCD-related (PAHO 2012; Ministry of Health). Additionally, 83% of deaths in St Kitts and Nevis are due to NCDs (Ministry of Health). Furthermore, the prevalence of diabetes in St Kitts and Nevis is three times higher than the world average, and our hypertension prevalence is 9% higher than the global average.
With so many people in St Kitts and Nevis being affected by NCDs, it is important for us to focus on prevention and control strategies and our You’re Sweet Enough campaign has been focusing on one NCD risk factor, sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs). Our campaign aims to raise awareness of the harmful health effects of consuming sugar-sweetened beverages like sodas, fruit drinks, energy drinks and sports drinks, and to encourage everyone to drink water as the healthy alternative.
Due to the very high level of sugar in SSBs, their regular consumption has been linked to weight gain and obesity, and being overweight or obese increases a person’s risk of developing non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease and some types of cancer.
Research has shown that 45% of adults and 26% of children in St Kitts and Nevis are obese, and that this is contributing to the high rate of NCDs in the Federation.
By reducing SSB consumption, we can reduce a major source of sugar in our diets and this can lead to a reduction in NCD risk and related death and disability.
The panel discussion we hosted on 25th August, aimed to bring together representatives from a variety of sectors to explore how we can all work together to tackle risk factors like SSB consumption. This discussion was moderated by Isalean Phillip, our Advocacy and Research Officer and panelists included:
We had a very informative and insightful discussion on the prevention and control of NCDs. We touched on policies like SSB taxation, making healthy foods more affordable, public education and the marketing of healthy and unhealthy foods, and more. It was great to have youth representation on the panel from the St Kitts National Youth Parliament. They voiced their concern at the high rate of childhood obesity and called for action.
We would like to thank all the panelists for taking part in this discussion and Isalean for so ably moderating this important conversation. You can watch the recording of the event below and please feel free to leave any comments or questions that you may have in the comments section below, we would love to hear from you.
On 6th May 2021, researchers from the Washington University School of Medicine published the findings from their research exploring the link between sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) and early-onset bowel cancer (bowel cancer before the age of 50) in women. They found that women, under the age of 50, who consumed two or more servings of SSBs per day were more than twice as likely to develop bowel cancer than women who consumed less than one serving per week.
This piece of work was part of the ongoing Nurses’ Health Study II (1991-2015) and included 95,464 women who were asked to record their food and beverage intake every four years for 24 years. Additionally, researchers collected information on potential risk factors for bowel cancer such as weight, diet, family history, smoking habits, physical activity and use of aspirin or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Then, using statistical analysis, they explored any links between SSB intake and early-onset bowel cancer.
They found that women who consumed high quantities of SSBs in adulthood were more likely to be less physically active, consume red and processed meats and have a poor-quality diet. They also found that high consumption of SSBs in adulthood and adolescence was linked to a higher risk of developing early-onset bowel cancer (no link was observed with fruit juice consumption or artificially sweetened beverages). It is important to note that this link was observed after taking into account the main risk factors for bowel cancer (e.g. diet, exercise and other related factors).
Researchers reported that out of the 95,464 women who were studied over the 24 years, 109 went on to develop early-onset bowel cancer.
Although researchers found a link between early-onset bowel cancer and SSB consumption because this was an observational study, they were unable to provide information on the exact cause of bowel cancer in their study population; more research is needed to understand their findings. Furthermore, this study included mostly white females and additional work is needed to explore this link in men and other ethnic groups.
This research provides further evidence of the negative impact that high levels of SSB consumption may have on the public’s health and highlights the need for the public to reduce their SSB consumption.
