The role physical education and sports play in health, social coherence and nationhood.
Looking at national strategies for development in the Solomon Islands I believe there is still an underestimation the role that physical education and sport can play in health, social coherence and nationhood.
Perhaps, following participation in the recent Pacific Games in Samoa and becoming the host for the next Games in 2023, the DCGA will forge a fresh vision for physical education and sports in schools and colleges and for student to participate in healthy exercises that benefit them.
Lack of physical exercise, even at an early age, contributes to obesity and, in turn, being overweight and unfit, often leads to the onset of non-communicable disease issues, including diabetes.
It has been said that diabetes, for example, is now regarded as the ‘killer disease’ in the Solomons ahead of malaria and is the major cause of admissions at the NRH surgical ward all year round.
There is also concern in the increasing number of children diagnosed with diabetes in Solomon Islands.
Given there is already an overt and very serious NCD burden in the Solomons it is important that physical activity and nutritional patterns are continually being shaped through youth, as physical activity and dietary habits are learned behaviors.
“For children to develop a lifelong habit of exercise, we must educate them from an early age about the importance of physical activity in maintaining good health,” says one notable health professional.
“Today, stroke and hypertensive disease are among the five leading causes of death in nine of the fourteen Pacific Islands countries (PICTs). Cardiovascular disease is reaching epidemic proportions in the majority of PICTs and is a leading cause of mortality in most countries of the Pacific(WHO)
“The incidence rates of cancertypes are lower in PICTs than in industrialized countries but they are still a significant health concern. Cervical cancer is the most common cancer among females in the PICTs accounting 20–30 % of all cancers, while males suffer from lung cancer due to cigarette smoking as more than half of the male population is regular smokers.
“Root crops have been the main staple of the Pacific peoples for millennia,mainly root crops; green leaves, coconut, and fruits in season (WHO) and this evidence shows that root crops, coconut, fish, leafy vegetables and fruits were common dietary staples throughout PICTs.
“Since Western contact, Pacific people have become more reliant on imported food. The most commonly imported foods providing fat are oil, margarine, butter, meat and chicken, tinned meat and tinned fish. In fact, the single most increase in meat to the PICTs is the importation of chicken, relatively high in fat. The largest single source of energy foods is now the cereal products of white rice and flour. This meant that traditional food sources had been slowly replaced by imported goods to the point of food dependency.
“A ‘big’ body size in many parts of the Pacific Islands is a symbol of health, wellbeing, status, strength and beauty, but it is important not to limit the focus to body size alone, but to realize that it is the accumulation of body fat that leads to obesity, mostly from a diet of imported fatty foods and not being physically active.
“Carbonated drinks and changing dietary patterns to foods of lower value have caused the high prevalence of obesity.”
I consider a better and stronger collaborative and contextualised initiative should be developed and implemented in local school physical education programmes to address the very serious and detrimental effects on health and well–being created by physical inactivity, poor dietary habits of youth and other health factors, as I have illustrated.
As New Zealand has offered to improve and add to the sports facilities in Honiara ahead of the Games to take place in Honiara in 2023, perhaps it might be helpful if New Zealand could assist the Solomon Islands Ministry of Education with designing, implementing and supplying sports equipment for the kind of physical education and sports programmes seen as beneficial.
For more detailed reading on this subject refer to the paper by Jeremy Dorovolomo, Southerrn Cross University ePublications @ SCU.
Yours sincerely
Frank Short
