American University Conducting Diabetes Research in the Federation
(ZIZ News) – The Ministry of Health and the University of Virginia Health System are engaged in a research project to determine the prevalence of type-two diabetes in St. Kitts and Nevis.
Dr. Jeanita Richardson is a distinguished scholar at the University of Virginia’s Center for Global Health and Associate Professor in the School of Medicine’s Public Health Sciences Department.
She said the main purpose of the research project is to gather data that can be analysed and given to the Ministry of Health in an effort to reduce diabetes in the federation.
“What our practice is, is to identify the priorities of the ministry and then bring our research skills to the federation to aid in creating a database for the federation that can be used to promote health here,” she stated.
According to Dr. Richardson, research is centered on diabetes because it is a growing problem in the federation and the wider Caribbean region.
“Because diabetes is the number one cause of deaths in the federation, the World Health Organization and PAHO have indicated that type-two diabetes is at epidemic proportion, particularly in the Caribbean and Latin America,” Dr. Richardson stated. “Persons of African descent are more likely to be at risk so it creates great expense and deleterious effects to individuals, their families and the health systems that support them.”
The aims of the project were identified in consultation with representatives from the St. Kitts And Nevis Ministries of Health and clinicians.