The National Insurance Corporation (NIC) is marking the tenth anniversary of Sneaker Day with a renewed appeal for Saint Lucians to adopt healthier lifestyles, as the institution continues its campaign to reduce the impact of chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs).
Communications Manager at the NIC, Shervon Alfred, said the initiative was launched a decade ago after the organization recognized the growing burden that chronic illnesses were placing not only on the country’s healthcare system, but also on its own sickness benefit programme.
“Ten years ago today that NIC decided to take a more proactive, more tangible approach to helping in the fight against chronic non-communicable diseases in Saint Lucia,” Alfred said.
He noted that health officials had long warned about the prevalence of NCDs across the island.
“Of course the folks from the Ministry of Health has been sounding the alarm for years already that NCDs account for over 80% of all the deaths in Saint Lucia and those are largely preventable deaths. Things like diabetes, hypertension and stroke and it all redounds to, it’s all connected to the amount of physical activity that we are participating and the kinds of foods that we are consuming,” he explained.
According to Alfred, the NIC also witnessed the consequences of these illnesses through the increasing number of sickness benefit claims linked to chronic conditions.
“At NIC, we were witnessing it ourselves in terms of the sickness benefit claims that we were seeing coming in. A lot of those claims were related to issues associated with chronic non-communicable diseases and of course, so we decided that we need to take play a more active approach to sound the alarm and to let Saint Lucian’s know that hey, we have a serious issue of chronic non-communicable diseases in our society, and we need to be taking proactive steps to combat it,” he said.
Alfred stressed that Sneaker Day is intended to encourage long-term behavioral change rather than being a symbolic event centered on footwear.
“Sneaker Day is more than just wearing fancy sneakers on the third Wednesday in June. We want people to take more active, more deliberate steps to better their health. Start the gym, start walking on an evening or in the morning, re-enroll, get your nutrition together, start eating healthier because those are the things that will help to reverse chronic non-communicable diseases,” he said.
The Communications Manager also encouraged employers to play a more active role in promoting employee wellness, pointing to initiatives already implemented within the NIC.
“And for the corporate world as well, we are telling them to start some workplace wellness programmes. At NIC, we are doing a number of initiatives ourselves. Every week we bring in a trainer to help keep our staff active and engaged. We’re also engaging in fitness competitions internally as well,” Alfred said.
He concluded with an appeal for Saint Lucians to take greater responsibility for their health through regular exercise and improved nutrition.
“So we’re encouraging Saint Lucians to be more active, pay more attention to your health, to the foods that you eat and how physically active that you are,” Alfred said.