Poor lifestyle choices have been cited for the increased risk of cardio-vascular disease (CVD) in Jamaica's youth, according to a leading professor at the University of the West Indies (UWI).

Consultant physician Rainford Wilks, director of the Epidemiology Research Unit at the Tropical Medical Research Institute, UWI, is calling for earlier interventions to curb the epidemic of CVD affecting youth in the Caribbean.

At the ninth UWI Medical Alumni Association International Medical Conference, held at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston, Wilks told The Gleaner the ministries of education and health needed to combine their efforts to significantly reduce the disease.

Health education needed

"An unhealthy population will impact on your wealth generation and will cost you more to look after them," he said. "We need to create a healthier society and increase exercising opportunities, but it needs to be a multi-sectoral effort."

Wilks said several reports conducted over the last 20 years showed that CVD in adulthood could be predicted by risk factors in early life.

In a recent Jamaican youth risk and resiliency behaviour survey - 2007, among the sample of 15 to 19-year-olds, 33 per cent reported hypertension or prehypertension; 25 per cent were overweight or obese and 22 per cent reported ever smoking.

The dietary intake assessment revealed that fruit and vegetable consumption was low, while fast food, sweetened beverages and pastry consumption was evidently excessive.

"The ministry of education and the ministry of health need to take the lead in this process. We need to involve children in physical activities and get them to exercise more," he said. "We also need to educate them about what to eat and make them available at reasonable prices."