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36% of school learners overweight – Heart Institute
Dr John Omagino, the UHI director
What you need to know:
CVDs are a group of disorders of the heart and blood vessels such as hypertension, heart failure, and stroke, while NCDs are those conditions that are non-infectious and typically of a chronic duration including CVDs, diabetes, and cancer
The Uganda Heart Institute (UHI) has said over 36 percent of learners in the country’s schools have excess body fat which puts them at higher risk of developing serious heart complications.
Dr. John Omagino, the UHI Executive director, said in an interview that the high percentage of overweight learners is a result of lack of physical exercise and unregulated eating.
He said focusing on children to curb the increasing burden of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) and other non-communicable diseases (NCDs) is the most effective tool at the moment.
CVDs are a group of disorders of the heart and blood vessels such as hypertension, heart failure, and stroke, while NCDs are those conditions that are non-infectious and typically of a chronic duration including CVDs, diabetes, and cancer.
“Much of the useful time of learning of the children is when they are studying and that is the time when they are building. We have to emphasize good nutrition which is healthy, full of energy-giving foods, full of vegetables and vitamins so that they have enough nutrition to develop,” Dr. Omagino said.
He added: “At the same time we have to stretch them, give them exercise which will help them help them develop their lungs, heart, muscles, and bones to the full. It’s the exercise which brings that and it is not only for competition but for health as well.”
Dr. Omagino said when a child who is physically fit grows up, they will be able to “withstand a lot of changes, and many don’t even fall sick.”
His advice is coming amid a revelation by Dr. Charles Oyoo Akiya, the commissioner for non-communicable diseases (NCDS) at the Ministry of Health that the number of people dying from NCDs is now at 41 percent, up from 33 percent in 2016.
Dr. Oyo said: “More people are increasingly experiencing heart attacks and strokes simply because we never acted yesterday, or we did, we acted late or inadequately.”
“Over the years, we have engaged population and primary care providers across the SPICES global consortium with the primary objective of contributing to cardiovascular disease prevention and control efforts,” he said.
According to health experts, heart diseases can be prevented by limiting alcohol consumption, quitting smoking, maintaining a healthy weight, controlling stress, eating a healthy diet, reducing salt and sugar intake being physically active, and doing regular medical check-ups.
According to Dr. Omagino of UHI, schools should give time for physical exercise, regulate what children eat to minimize unhealthy foods which make them develop obesity. He also appealed to the government to close schools that don’t have space for physical exercise.
“People are coming to the hospital when they are half-dead –their heart is already broken down, their vessels, kidney, brain, and the rest of the things are half dead. The right way to control these cardiovascular diseases is to go down to the early and beginning lifestyle of a person,” he said.
Dr. Omagino said the child should be examined for heart defects and other complications. At least 16,000 out of 1.4 million children born in the country have heart defects that have severe effects on their health and development, according to information from the UHI. These children often undergo a corrective surgical operation at the Institute.
Dr. Geofrey Musinguzi from Makerere University School of Public Health said government and communities should take quick action to reverse the increasing deaths from cardiovascular diseases.
“More people are increasingly experiencing heart attacks and strokes simply because we never acted yesterday, or we did, we acted late or inadequately,” he said.
“Over the years, we have engaged population and primary care providers across the SPICES global consortium with the primary objective of contributing to cardiovascular disease prevention and control efforts,” he said.
Dr. Musinguzi is part of the Scaling-up Packages for Interventions for Cardiovascular diseases prevention in selected sites in Europe and sub-Saharan Africa (SPICES) which has been supporting the government to fight CVDs.
Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng, the health minister, said at the event that there is a need for more support to fight cardiovascular diseases.
“Non-communicable diseases prevention and control are a key part of our health agenda reflected in the National Development Plan III and we continue to commit to prioritise and implement relevant interventions to deal with these conditions as we modernise and transform our country,” she said.
