Eighty percent of the non-communicable diseases are preventable through effective healthy lifestyle.
According to Pacific NCD and Health Team Coordinator, Dr Wendy Snowdon, diabetes, stroke, heart disease and cancer are the leading causes of deaths in Fiji.
She says significant action is needed to control these issues.
“Smoking, the unhealthy diet, the misuse of alcohol physical inactivity, if we can improve all of this than we can really reduce the burden of NCD. The fact that NCD is largely preventable has now being recognized in the sustained development goal, that we have a target for 2030 that we should be reducing the premature mortality which is those who die before the age of 70 by 1/3 by 2030. The only way we going to do that is by targeting the risk factors and also to certain extent of improving the health system management of NCD.”
Dr Snowdon revealed this during a workshop aimed to empower consumers with knowledge and skills to assist them to make healthy food choices and enable them to successfully influence policies to combat NCD’s.
