MORE than 80 per cent of the mortality rate in Fiji is because of NCDs while the economic burden is 10.9 per cent of the GDP.
The figures were highlighted by the Health Ministry’s head of wellness, Dr Devina Nand, at the 2024 Fiji OHS Conference at Pacific Harbour yesterday.
“Around 84 per cent die globally due to NCDs,” Dr Nand said.
“And it’s very similar to Fiji. Our mortality rate due to NCDs ranges from 75 to more than 80 per cent.”
Dr Nand said in Fiji, 31 per cent were premature mortality.
“That ranges from about 45 per cent to 50 per cent, so, they die before the age of 70.
“We know that there’s a huge economic burden due to the NCDs and globally this was 10.9 per cent of the GDP.”
Dr Nand said in Fiji, the latest stats showed about $591million as part of the burden that NCDs posed to the country.
“And climate change, of course, can increase the burden, especially when it comes to air pollution and threats to food security.
“In workplace screening, what we did as a program was that we really wanted to target workplace health.
“And we piloted that in the Central Division between 2015 and 2020. What we found was that participants and employees experienced an improvement in their lifestyle and improvement and risk factors.
“And this has resulted in navigation skills and work-related stress and improvement in workforce productivity.
“So, we decided that we were going to roll this out as a program to other divisions and expand screening opportunities and opportunities to reduce stress and workloads of health workers as well as other workers.”
