Advertisement

How the poor are eating their way to early graves

Thursday October 18 2018
kuk

Lifestyle diseases have risen among low- and middle-income countries. FILE PHOTO | NMG

By MARYANNE GICOBI

For a person growing up in Nairobi’s Kibera, one of the largest slums in sub-Saharan Africa, getting the next meal is perhaps the main thing that occupies their mind.

The meal does not have to be balanced, and lifestyle diseases — the leading cause of death in the world — are not a concern.

However, with the rise of diseases like diabetes, cancer, heart and respiratory conditions among low-income urban households, the people living here now worry about poor diet, lack of exercise as well as the uptake of unhealthy behaviour among the youth, such as smoking and the harmful use of alcohol.

A UK-based pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has started a programme to educate slum dwellers on the causes and spread of non-communicable diseases, formerly perceived to affect high- and middle-income households.

People in the slums are prime candidates because they consume diets high in fat, sugar and salt mostly from French fries or chips cooked by the roadside as well as mandazis, a popular snack in East Africa made from dough.

A 2016 baseline survey by Plan International Kenya found that the majority of young people — 60 per cent — relied on carbohydrates, mainly chips, as their main dietary component.

Advertisement

“Despite the majority — 75.2 per cent — of young people being aware of the positive health effects of physical activity, many reported spending an average of three hours just sitting on a typical day,” said a programme manager at Plan International Kenya Danor Ajwang’.

Well aware of the need to exercise, Aisha Masuid, a 45-year-old mother of three, has fitted a Six Pack Care exercise bench in her house. Neighbours flock here to tone their abdominal and back muscles.

“After learning about the dangers of a poor diet, I asked my sister to send me money to buy something to exercise with. My weight is down from 80kg to 75kg in two months,” Mrs Masuid told The EastAfrican in her house, located on a plastic-pockmarked street lined with ditches flowing with sewage. “I share the exercise pack with my neighbours and my husband.”

The Plan International survey also found that 46 per cent of young people smoked cigarettes, with 70 per cent citing peer pressure as the main driver.

Some 66 per cent were current drinkers of alcohol, with 1.5 per cent of them reporting occasions of heavy sporadic drinking over the past 30 days, necessitating the focus on reducing the risky behaviour among young people in Kibera.

A significant sensitisation on the dangers of unhealthy eating is also targeting schoolchildren in the slum as a way to curb the practice when young.

“We have built relationships with 41 schools in eight villages in Kibera, and are actively supporting the growth and development of young advocates so that their voice is included at the county and sub-county level,” said AstraZeneca’s chief financial officer Marc Dunoyer. “We aim to reach 82,000 young people in Kenya by 2020.”

YMCA Kibera, a private school, has formed a health club and holds sessions every Wednesday afternoon. Each session accommodates some 30 pupils, who are sensitised to the dangers of physical inactivity and unhealthy eating.

“I am now conscious of the amount of roadside chips that I eat,” Alex Nzeka, a Class Seven student at YMCA Kibera said. “I used to eat them at any time of the day, especially in the evening after school; I now eat more fruits and play more.”

Emily Mutiso, a Standard Six pupil in the same school said she does not eat uncooked salt anymore.

“I also skip rope more and play football during lunch time,” she said.

According to the World Health Organisation, while death rates associated with non-communicable diseases have declined by more than half in some developed countries, they have increased in low- and middle-income countries.

Here, death rates among young adults are increasing at an alarming rate, especially among the poorest populations.

Advertisement