Guyana’s obesity rate for males at 41%, females at 56% – Health Minister

Obesity is a health concern that confronts the adolescent and adult population in Guyana – and the statistics on the situation have been increasing.
Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony shared statistics on Tuesday showing that the obesity rate for males in Guyana stand at 41 per cent and in females, at approximately 56.5 per cent. This, he said, can be changed with the right nutritional choices in order to prevent health complications in the future.
“In our adolescent and adult population, we have seen an increase in obesity…As we know, these are factors that can contribute to chronic Non-Communicable Diseases and if we reduce our consumption of sugar, sugar sweetened beverages, fast foods and we change the things that we eat, we can reduce our levels of obesity,” the Minister outlined.

Dr Anthony was speaking on the issue of malnutrition and undernutrition, but highlighted the prevalence of obesity which coexisted with the former – on the other side of the spectrum.
“Malnutrition increases our susceptibility to food-borne diseases and it creates a vicious cycle for health and, therefore, this is one of the things that we, as a population, need to be mindful of and need to work to remove from our country…We need to be mindful of overnutrition, and that is people eating too much. In countries like ours, while we have undernutrition, it coexists with overweight and obesity. This then is one of the main risk factors for diet-related Non-Communicable Diseases,” he highlighted.
The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) in 2020 reported that 37 per cent of overweight children reside in lower- and middle-income countries. From the data gathered, the conclusion was that stunting declined steadily since 2000 – but faster progress is needed to reach the 2030 target. Wasting persists at alarming rates and overweight will require a reversal in trajectory if the 2030 target is to be achieved.
Meanwhile, Dr Anthony said Guyana has been facing a low birth rate, so the monitoring of pregnant mothers and foetal development becomes even more essential. A nutritional problem facing pregnant women is anaemia. However, the country on the wider spectrum has experienced significant levels of micronutrient deficiencies.
“Another nutritional problem that we face in Guyana is the whole question of micronutrient deficiency. One of the places where we can see this is in pregnancy. We can find that there is a lot of iron deficiency anaemia among our pregnant women. We have had a project in Guyana where we addressed this concern and, unfortunately, that programme has been terminated and we still have among us this whole problem of anaemia in pregnancy,” he shared.
The most recent survey shows that pregnant women with mild forms of anaemia stand at 41 per cent, moderate anaemia – 16.7 per cent and severe anaemia – 0.5 per cent. This issue, the Minister said, can be mitigated by providing nutritional supplements.