Speaker Arnold I. Palacios and seven other members of the House of Representatives were at the Fiesta Resort and Spa yesterday morning to hear about obesity and diabetes on the islands and why they remain big public health issues.
With Palacios, R-Saipan, were Vice Speaker Joseph P. Deleon Guerrero, R-Saipan, Reps. Ralph DLG Torres, R-Saipan, Heinz S. Hofschneider, R-Saipan, Ramon A. Tebuteb, R-Saipan, Edward T. Salas, R-Saipan, Francisco S. Dela Cruz, Covenant-Saipan, Tina Sablan, Ind.-Saipan, and Justo S. Quitugua, D-Saipan.
Senate President Pete P. Reyes, R-Saipan, was represented by one of his staffers.
Current trends and what are being done to curb diabetes incidents were discussed by members of the Commonwealth Diabetes Coalition, its community and off-island partners.
Health as a long term investment for the CNMI’s future generation was emphasized.
It was pointed out that poor health can compound the bad economy.
Coalition co-founder Lynn Tenorio said although the number of patients diagnosed with diabetes decreased from 1,442 in 2006 to 948 in 2007, diabetes remains the number one killer disease in the CNMI.
She said 81 percent of women who participated in the Wise Women Project were overweight, and 44 percent had abnormal glucose level.
Regarding the CNMI children, He Jae Lee, acting coordinator of Public School System’s Food and Nutrition Service Program, said 20 percent of kindergarten to 12th grade students were overweight.
Being overweight, she said, is the primary factor of diabetes. The others are family history, ethnicity and inactivity.
She said if these trends continue, the CNMI will be bringing up unhealthy children who will soon become unhealthy adults. They will become unproductive which will result in an inefficient workforce and a bad economy that cannot fund sufficient health care, which will again result in more unhealthy children.
Guest speaker Henry Ichiho, of Papa Ola’ Lokahi, a native Hawaiian healthcare organization, said 80 percent of the health budget in the Pacific Islands are spent on medical care and treatment. Only 20 percent goes to preventive and public health services.
Citing the current health trends in particularly diabetes, Ichiho said “we need to shift the focus from medical care to more preventive education.”
Besides funding, Ichiho believes education is the best way to make public health a long-term investment.
“We are on the verge of an epidemic,” he said, referring to the increasing cases of diabetic in the Pacific Islands.
Quitugua said since their meeting with health advocates last year, lawmakers have appropriated funding for the Department of Public Health’s preventive health care education.
He said they also provided funding for PSS’ health programs.
House Bill 16-102, which will provide $350,000 for PSS’ Project Familia and Teen Talk programs, has been submitted to the Senate, he said.
The associate education commissioner for instruction and curriculum, Jackie Quitugua, said Public Law 16-05 provided PSS with $20,000 for the health screening equipment of schools.
She also thanked the Legislature for passing P.L. 14-80 which provided PSS with $200,000 for its health programs.
Gregoria Omar, associate administrator of Marianas Health Services and a coalition partner, said most of the patients who come to the hospital are diabetic and almost all of them have developed complications.
She urged the legislators to, once again, help.
“We are not asking for castles, we’re just asking for something you can help us with,” she said.
Omar said it breaks her heart whenever she sees diabetic patients at their own homes after being discharged from the hospital.
