According to the 2003 South African Demographic and Health Survey, nearly 50% of men aged 25 to 34 and 60% of women in the same category were described as physically inactive.

South Africans are among the worst in the world when it comes to the increasing incidence of cardiovascular disease and diabetes, and it’s largely due to our increasingly unhealthy lifestyles which combine poor diets and a lack of physical activity with smoking and drinking.

Fortunately South Africa’s top doctors have a plan to help reduce the epidemic and it’s called iChange4Health.

Top doctors support new initiative

iChange4Health targets the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). The initiative equips healthcare providers with an innovative package of resources to use in counselling their patients about lifestyle modification, in order to reduce the risk of chronic diseases.

The well-known doctors who have endorsed the programme include Prof Bongani Mayosi, Head of the Department of Medicine at the University of Cape Town (UCT); Prof Jimmy Volmink, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University; Prof Bob Mash, Head of Family Medicine and Primary Care at Stellenbosch University; Prof Dinky Levitt, Head of Diabetic Medicine and Endocrinology at UCT; and Dr Vash Mungal-Singh, CEO of the Heart and Stroke Foundation.

The resource package was researched and developed by the Chronic Disease Initiative for Africa (CDIA) with support from the Cancer Association of SA and in partnership with leading local generics manufacturer, Pharma Dynamics.

“The iChange4Health programme enables health care providers to be more effective in changing chronic disease sufferers’ lifestyle risk behaviours, and improving self-management among patients with existing chronic conditions,” says Prof Mayosi. “There is a considerable body of research that strongly supports the benefits of lifestyle change as a means of decreasing chronic diseases of lifestyle risk. Even modest changes in behaviour can substantially reduce morbidity and mortality.”