The news was not palatable at the start of last year when an international agency cited Trinidad and Tobago among the nations with one of the highest obesity rates in the hemisphere. The year did not round out in December with good news either, with yet another international agency reporting Trinidad and Tobago as having one of the highest physical inactivity rates in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Issued out of Santiago, Chile on January 19, 2017, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations and the Pan American Health Organisation reported that “obesity affects 140 million people – 23 percent of the region’s population” with the highest rates “in the Caribbean countries of Barbados (36 percent), Trinidad and Tobago, Antigua and Barbuda, all at around 31 per cent”. Additionally, FAO and PAHO noted that the “increase in obesity has disproportionately impacted women: in more than 20 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, the rate of female obesity is 10 percentage points higher than that of men”.
Then late last month, the Inter-American Development Bank’s report, ‘Sports for Development’, written by Laura Jaitman and Carlos Scartascini presented discomforting data indicating that within Latin America and the Caribbean, it was in the latter countries were the least physical activity was not taking place.
As the report stated: “For instance, with a physical inactivity prevalence rate near 64 percent, Colombia's rate almost doubles the regional rate. The Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago and St Lucia follow in terms of physical inactivity, with rates between 43 percent and 41.5 percent. At the other extreme, Guatemala has the most active people with a prevalence rate of physical inactivity less than half the regional rate.”
It is undoubtedly a serious health situation, as FAO’s acting regional representative Eve Crowley has said: “The alarming rates of overweight and obesity in Latin America and the Caribbean should act as a wakeup call to governments in the region to introduce policies that address all forms of hunger and malnutrition by linking food security, sustainability, agriculture, nutrition and health.”
This is further emphasised by PAHO’s director Carissa Etienne, who has indicated “the region faces a double burden of malnutrition”. She adds: “This needs to be tackled through balanced diets that include fresh, healthy, nutritious and sustainably produced food, as well as addressing the main social factors that determine malnutrition, such as lack of access to healthy food, water and sanitation, education and health services, and social protection programmes, among others.”
Jaitman and Scartascini have found physical activity, which is measured as the average number of steps, increases with income level. According to their findings, inhabitants of a country exercise more the higher their income; that there exists a positive relation between physical activity and gross domestic product per capita. According to Jaitman and Scartascini, the data coming out of South American countries suggest physical activity levels here are consistent with income levels. However, the story is different with reduced activity and income levels for Caribbean countries. Obviously, the recommendation here is nationals in Caribbean countries should get on the move for better health.
Jaitman and Scartascini have also found that city life is conducive to exercise, with physical activity higher in countries with a higher proportion of urban dwellers. The finding is, given the level of urbanism in countries such as El Salvador and Venezuela, and Caribbean nations as Honduras and Trinidad and Tobago, its nationals should climb higher on the physical activity index.
It is not a good sign last year began and ended with findings indicating a nation as Trinidad and Tobago having high obesity rates and low physical activity. While it is urgent this nation buckle down and get on the move, the wakeup call is also applicable to the rest of the region for its nationals to become more active before its collective health worsens.