South Africa needs to radically improve its disease prevention efforts to avert a rapid escalation in ill health, Dr Peter Bond, chief medical officer at Old Mutual, told delegates at the recent Health Convention sponsored by Old Mutual in Cape Town.
Dr Bond presented “The Dice Are Loaded”, a snapshot of the state of preventable disease among South Africans and he cited obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease (CVD), smoking and alcohol abuse as areas of particular concern.
In particular, rising rates of obesity could add massive costs to life insurance products, he said.
“We need to prioritise preventative medicine. We have clearly failed to date,” he said.
Dr Bond says that at current rates the world’s obese population will outnumber those suffering from starvation by 2025. As serious as that is, obesity rates in South Africa are nearly double the global rate of 30%, with 7 out of 10 women and 4 out of 10 men overweight or obese.
South Africa has the highest overweight and obesity rate in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the Lancet 2014 medical journal, and that’s driving an upsurge in Type 2 diabetes, he says.
“Not a single country has managed to reduce its obesity rate in the past three decades, and obesity-driven diabetes across sub-Saharan Africa will double in 20 years, according to the World Health Organisation,” says Dr Bond.
More than 3.5 million South Africans have type 2 diabetes and another 5 million are insulin resistant, which means they’re at risk of developing the condition. Diabetes is generally poorly managed and most sufferers generally wait around seven years before seeking medical attention.
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) kills 200 people in this country each day: the equivalent of 13 minibus-taxi loads of people per day and the rate of premature deaths from CVD is expected to increase by 40% by 2030. An average of 130 heart attacks and 240 strokes occur each day.
South Africa also has the highest rate of hypertension (high blood pressure) in the world, with 6.3 million sufferers.
Tobacco remains a major health threat around the world, killing about 3 million people a year. While the overall number of South African smokers has dropped from 32% of the adult population in 1993 to 16.4% in 2012, the number of young smokers has remained steady, with 21% of Grade 8-to-11 learners smoking, a rate that’s unchanged in the last decade.
The health risks from smoking – first- and second-hand – are proven: cigarette smoke contains more than 4 800 chemicals, 69 of which are known carcinogenics.
Alcohol abuse remains a major health risk too. Apart from playing a role in the development of diseases such as cirrhosis of the liver, it is also implicated in high-risk behaviour.