Around 41 per cent of all the employees in the workforce have cardiovascular risk, says Health Ministry’s head of wellness, Dr Devina Nand.
While speaking at the 2024 Fiji OHS conference at Pacific Harbour on Friday, she said this was also one of the areas of concern for them.
“That was based on the intermediate risk factor of obesity,” Dr Nand said.
“That’s high. We’re almost reaching 50 per cent.
“That means that any employee in this category has the risk of developing a heart disease, heart attack or stroke in the next 10 years.
“So, there’s a very high risk of developing cardiovascular disease.”
In terms of major NCDs, Dr Nand said almost everybody has a risk.
“What we’re seeing is that we’re starting in a very early age onset and then developing this risk as we go around.
“In terms of mental disorder and risk for depression, of course, we have started to see a lot of the normals across the age groups but there’s a slight fluctuation noted in the less than 20 age groups and 30-34 age groups.”
She said males were highly at risk of developing depression, anxiety, and distress.
“NCDs development, of course, starts very early on, from risky behaviour from childhood to severe rising obesity and other risk factors in the mid-20s to the 30s.
“To that, rise in blood pressure and blood sugars from the 40s and then of course results in higher prediction of cardiac disease reporting.
“So, the interventions need to be as early as possible. And this is where the prenatal interventions are important.
