The KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Health, Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo, will speak to business leaders about the need to create healthy and active working environments in order to building healthy communities at a business breakfast to be held on Friday, 8 April 2011.
“Workplaces are very important settings in which to promote healthy living and the integration of physical activity into daily living,” says the MEC Dhlomo. “Workplaces are viable and positive venues to reach citizens and healthy workplace environments will result in direct health benefits for workers and economic gains for the province.”
Chronic Diseases of Lifestyles (CDL) in South Africa account for nearly 40 percent (MRC) of adult deaths, and the majority of South Africans have at least one modifiable risk factor for chronic disease. More specifically, conditions such as hypertension and diabetes in older South African adults are very common. For example; prevalence of hypertension in black South Africans (> 65 years) living in urban and peri-urban communities has been found to be greater than 43 percent in men and more than 66 percent in women.
The MEC will be running this year’s Comrades Marathon on 29 May as part of his commitment to championing the promotion of physical activity as a means of building healthy environments which makes sound business sense. The breakfast meeting is a step towards kick starting an initiative to promote healthy and active communities which the MEC believes should be a way of life. Physical activity must be valued and integrated into daily life; believes the MEC.
The purpose of the breakfast meeting with business; held in partnership with the Durban Chamber Foundation and Quest Research Services, is to launch a Healthy and Active Communities Initiative that will assist and support communities, and business, to increase the proportion of the population who are physically active. “It is at the community level where real change in behaviour can best be fostered and sustained by increasing awareness, creating opportunities to participate and developing supportive physical and social environments,” says MEC Dhlomo.
Journalists are invited to the breakfast meeting and to interact with the MEC on his participation in the Comrades Marathon and the promotion of healthy life styles. The details are as follows:
Date : 8 April 2011 (Friday)
Time : 07h30
Venue: Southern Sun Elangeni, Durban
Please RSVP to: chris.maxon@kznhealth.gov.za
Enquiries:
Chris Maxon
Cell: 083 447 2869
