Written by John Muchangi | From The Star Via AllAfrica

Key study says non-communicable diseases are growing killers. It advises Kenyans to know their NCDs status

Researchers may have found the reasons slum dwellers and rural Kenyans are fattening.

The researchers also found out that women might be part of the reason men near Nairobi are growing potbellies.

Their three-month survey reveals women dictate the food eaten in most households, and most of this food is unhealthy.

The result has been a fattening population in the most unlikely places — slums and rural areas — where people are increasingly developing non-communicable diseases like cancer, heart diseases and diabetes.

The survey, carried out by the University of Nairobi (UoN), reveals that poor lifestyle choices at home expose entire families to preventable diseases that are not only life-threatening but also expensive to treat.

It sought to determine the knowledge on non-communicable diseases among key decision makers in households.

“We were asking, who’s making decisions in regard to lifestyle. Is it the wife or the husband, or is it the househelp?” says Dr Richard Ayah, the principal investigator and lecturer at UoN.

The survey in Kibera and Githiga in Kiambu County showed, on average, women determine the meals consumed in 65.3 per cent of households.

The study disclosed that most people in these two areas do not know what non-communicable diseases are, at 69.4 per cent in Githiga and 78.1 per cent in Kibera.

Decisions on meals were made made without regard to nutrition.

“NCDs are real and preventable. They are here with us,” Dr Ayah said during presentation of results last week.

Read more at AllAfrica