Govt employees to undergo weekly physical exercises
President Museveni teaches Ugandans how to exercise during the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020. A new report indicates that there is a rise in obesity in the country, which experts warn is a health risk. Photo/File
What you need to know:
- Dr Charles Oyoo Akiya, the Commissioner for Non-Communicable Diseases prevention at the Ministry of Health appealed to the public to embrace physical exercise and other lifestyle adjustments to reduce the risk of preventable diseases.
The government has ordered ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) to institute weekly physical exercise sessions for their staff to tame the rising burden of lifestyle diseases.
This information is contained in a March 13 letter that Ms Lucy Nakyobe Mbonye, the head of Public Service and Secretary to Cabinet, wrote to permanent secretaries and executive directors.
She wrote this about six days after the release of the Uganda Demographic and Health Survey report which indicated a rise in obesity from 17 percent to 26 percent in the last 17 years.
Ms Nakyobe, in the letter, said the orders followed a letter she received from the Permanent Secretary of the Health Ministry in February, “regarding the physical activity in ministries, departments and agencies.”
Weekly exercise
“This is to request you (all Permanent Secretaries, Clerk to Parliament, Executive Directors, and Chief Executive Officers of Agencies) to institute a two-hour weekly physical exercise session in your respective entities for purposes of promoting good health. Give this matter the attention it deserves because it will help to save the lives of your staff and reduce the disease burden,” she wrote.
Details in the UDHS report that was released by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics on March 7, showed that “since 2006, overweight or obesity has increased from 17 percent to 26 percent in 2022”.
Being overweight and Obesity is linked to the risk of common diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer, which cause a lot of suffering, and loss of life and are expensive to treat. The government has been spending taxpayers’ money to take to foreign hospitals some of the officials with such diseases.
Details in the report also show that comparatively, women in the wealthiest households are five times more overweight or obese than women from the poorest households (45 percent versus 8 percent).
These had body mass index greater than or equal to 25 (BMI ≥ 25.0). However, nine percent of women were thin (body mass index or BMI less than 18.5).
“Among men, 15 percent are thin (BMI < 18.5) and only 11 percent are overweight or obese (BMI ≥ 25.0). Men with more than secondary education (28 percent) and those from the wealthiest households (21 percent) are overweight or obese,” the report reads further.
Research
Researchers at the Uganda Cancer Institute (UCI) have warned in a 2022 report that the burden of cancers in Uganda could increase by around 40 percent in 2030 due to changes in risk factors and population growth.
In specific terms, the report whose lead author is Judith Asasira from UCI indicates that “Cervical, breast and prostate cancer incidence was projected to increase by 35 percent, 57.7 percent, and 33.4 percent, respectively.”
Dr Charles Oyoo Akiya, the Commissioner for Non-Communicable Diseases prevention at the Ministry of Health appealed to the public to embrace physical exercise and other lifestyle adjustments to reduce the risk of preventable diseases.
“The Ministry of Health has been implementing this (physical exercise among the staff) for a long time, and that is why our Permanent secretary wrote to the head of Public service to have the same initiated in all MDAs,” he said.
