- Jamaicans access Know Your Numbers for better health outcomes
KINGSTON, Jamaica. Tuesday, January 28, 2025: Well over 220,000 or some 44.1 per cent of the targeted 500,000 tests to help citizens identify their risk of chronic diseases and to refer those with adverse results for further test and treatment have been done under the Know Your Numbers (KYN) initiative.
The revelation was made by the Minister of Health & Wellness, Dr. the Hon. Christopher Tufton, MP, in his presentation to Parliament earlier today (Tuesday, January 28, 2025), who said the Ministry is keen to further progress the initiative, having regard to the scale of the non-communicable diseases (NCDs) problem facing the country.
“Premature death rates have increased from 17 per cent in 2009 to 21 per cent in 2020. Over this period, cardiovascular diseases and cancers contributed the highest share of potential years of life lost. Despite the high prevalence of NCDs and risk factors, health seeking behaviours remain low, and many Jamaicans are unaware of their health status,” Dr. Tufton said.
“I wish to highlight that in 2017, only 59 per cent of hypertensive and 58 per cent of diabetic individuals aged 15 and older were aware of their condition, leaving approximately 301,000 and 129,000 persons, respectively unaware of their diagnosis,” he added.
It is against this background, the Minister explained, that KYN was launched in May 2023 – and in alignment with recommendations from the World Health Organisation for early detection and screening, in addition to treatment and palliative care to form key components of the NCDs response.
PERFORMANCE
As of November 2024, the KYN initiative has conducted 220,639, with performance varying across the Regional Health Authorities. The Northeast Regional Health Authority has achieved 83 per cent of its target, while Southeast Regional Health Authority recorded the lowest performance at 20.8 per cent.
As it relates to number of screening tests conducted per test type, the results, as at November 2024, are as follows:
- Blood Glucose – 65,331 tests conducted representing 65.3% of the target;
- Blood Pressure – 78,854 tests conducted representing 39.4% of the target;
- Body Mass Index – 51,359 tests conducted representing 29.3% of the target; and
- Blood Cholesterol – 29,095 tests conducted representing 100% of the target.
Meanwhile, of the total 220,639 screenings conducted, for those identified, 66.3 per cent were females, while 33.7 per cent were males, representing a 2:1 female-to-male participation ratio.
“This ratio is consistent with the overall male/female health seeking behaviour pattern. When broken down by NCD risk factor screened for, females represented the majority in all screening test categories, accounting for 66.5 per cent of blood pressure, 67 per cent of blood glucose, 68.2 per cent of blood cholesterol, and 64.2 per cent of BMI,” noted the Minister.
“The total number of abnormal results reflected 77,263 or 32% of all tests, with blood pressure accounting for 34,920 (45.2%); BMI, 29,347 (38%); blood glucose, 7,175 (9.3%); and blood cholesterol, 5,821 (7.5%),” Dr. Tufton added.
GENDER
Out of the 77,263 abnormal screening results, sex was identified for 72,105; representing 68.2 per cent females and 31.8 per cent males. Females also had the higher proportion of abnormal results across all NCD categories, accounting for 65.3 per cent of blood pressure tests, 65.9 per cent of blood glucose tests, 71.7 per cent of blood cholesterol tests, and 71.5 per cent of BMI tests.