Kenyans losing war on lifestyle diseases

The market for traditional sweet potatoes and arrowroots has never been so good. Urban Kenyans have started to understand the ill effects of refined, fatty, salty and sugary breakfasts.

Because of the significant dry spell early in the year, traders have been sourcing sweet potatoes from as far as Tanzania. On the surface, there appears to be an onslaught on the highly advertised cereals, confectioneries and margarines.

The turn to the roots, called orphan crops by the Ministry of Agriculture, however, may be too little too late. New statistics indicate that Kenyans are getting fatter, drinking more and ailing more.

Comprehensive data released this week by the World Health Organisation says the consumption of tobacco, alcohol, salt, sugars and lack of physical exercises are major health risk factors in Kenya.

The World Health Statistics 2012, which covers the 194 member states of the WHO, says the world is getting heavier with lifestyle diseases becoming a major killer.

In Kenya, communicable diseases are the number one killer led by Aids in adults and diarrhoea in children. Heart conditions lead among lifestyle diseases.

More than 60 per cent of deaths in Kenya are caused by infectious diseases such as Aids, malaria and pneumonia while 12 per cent are attributed to heart conditions, six per cent to cancers, two per cent to diabetes and six per cent to other lifestyle diseases.

Lifestyle diseases generally kill more men than women, and at a younger age, while women pay the balance through high rates of maternal deaths.

Obesity, long established as a major health risk factor, is also not shared proportionally among Kenya with women carrying more weight than men.

According to the data, Kenyan women are almost twice as heavy as men. While about two per cent of men are obese, this figure jumps to 6.2 per cent for women.

Even among women, the obesity is not shared equally. An affluent woman living in Nairobi’s Kitisuru estate or Mombasa’s Nyali is likely to carry more weight than their counterparts in Kawangware slums.

But even as more Kenyans opt for a leaner breakfast, the report says the expected results are spoilt by other consumption habits such as smoking. Kenyan men smoke more than what is the regional average; at least 26 per cent of males are smokers with the majority of them in rural areas.

Evidence shows that one in five males between 18 and 29 years and one in two males between 40 and 49 years are using tobacco products.

According to the report, alcohol abuse is on the rise in Africa with Kenyan men starting off when they are still young.

A study carried in November by SCAD, a youth not for profit organisation, in 28 schools in Nairobi and Kiambu covering 1,470 students, found that boys start drinking alcohol at age 12.

“Majority (26.5 per cent) of current alcohol users had their first alcoholic drink between the ages of 14 and 16, while 23.2 per cent of current users took their first drink aged below 12 years.”

Statistics from the Kenya Bureau of Standards and the market indicate that alcohol consumption is on the increase in Kenya, and as the economy improves, this will continue to rise.

Last year, Kenyans downed 601 million litres of alcohol, some 30 million litres more than the previous year.

This, coupled with an increasing sedentary life, with more urban housewives spending more time on the couch watching soap operas, is a risk factor leading to obesity.

According to the WHO statistics, 15 per cent of Kenyans are dangerously inactive with the ministries of health lacking a physical activity programme. However, with the coming of a devolved government, this is bound to change.

According to a draft health Bill prepared for legislation by the two ministries of health, the county governments will be responsible for promoting and providing facilities for physical activities for their populations.

One suggested way to increase physical activity, especially among students, is to make sure that they walk to school instead of using buses or their parents’ cars.

“Exercise is an effective way of addressing health inequalities. However, many parents are afraid of letting their children go outside because the roads are so busy, and in many communities there are the additional dangers of unsafe environments where play areas are littered with discarded syringes and broken glass,” says Dr Nicolas Muraguri, the former head of the National Aids and STDs Control Programme.

The other factors fuelling the increase of lifestyle diseases are the high intake of salt and sugar.

Last year, WHO director-general Margaret Chan called for immediate and aggressive action against tobacco, alcohol, foods rich in salts, fats and sugar to stop what she called “globesity.”

The growing ratio of lifestyle diseases piles on top of yet-to-be-tamed infectious diseases responsible for 62 per cent of all deaths in Kenya.

HIV is the major single killer disease in Kenya claiming over 24 per cent of all adult deaths.

This is followed by malaria at 7.2 per cent while tuberculosis comes fourth, claiming about five per cent of all deaths. Together, these three diseases are the most heavily funded, especially by donors.

The level of donor support to HIV, malaria and tuberculosis has been rising dramatically from about $86 million in 2002 to more than $565 million in 2009, with the bulk going to HIV.

While in 2002 donors were meeting, only about half the expenses for the three diseases, by 2009 this had risen to almost 90 per cent. The US remains the biggest donor to the health sector in Kenya.

Among children, the major killer, according to the WHO report, is diarrhoea. The report shows a worrying trend where the provision of safe drinking water to all Kenyans, apart from the richest, is deteriorating.

Only about 20 per cent of Kenyans in rural areas get safe drinking water, pointing towards more water-borne diseases. Despite the growing population and increasing disease burden, the general government spending in health had been on the decline from 2000 to 2007.

The report also captures the now endemic food insecurity in the country, reflected in child malnutrition among poor families.

“Children from the poorest urban quintile are four times more likely to be chronically malnourished than children from the wealthiest urban quintile.”

If these children can manage to survive the many infectious diseases, they could expect to live to the age of 54, at which they are most likely to contend with the increasing number of lifestyle health conditions.