How UWI and FSU study of JNBS micro-credit Database indicates CVD's increase in Jamaica

“The results demonstrate that microcredit financing is positively associated with wealth acquisition but worsened CVD risk status”

Statement by researchers from the University of West Indies, Mona, and Florida State University, Tallahassee, in the United States on their study linking microcredit loans and an increase in CVD risk.

Folks, more evidence is surfacing that points to a link between increased wealth and poor health due to bad eating choices.

This as a joint study conducted by the researchers from the University of West Indies, Mona, and Florida State University, Tallahassee, in the United States between December 2007 and September 2008 suggests borrowing microcredit loans increases the risk of CVD (Cardio-Vascular disease) as reported in the article “Microcredit Leads To ‘Richer But Fatter’ Jamaicans”, published Wednesday January 13, 2016, The Jamaica Gleaner.

 

The study, titled, Richer but fatter: The unintended consequences of microcredit financing on household health and expenditure in Jamaica, was done by analyzing the JNBS (Jamaica National Building Society) database of microcredit users to come to this interesting conclusion.

Their findings, published in 2014 in Tropical Medicine and International Health, a European journal, showed that:

1.      More male and female beneficiaries were overweight compared to non-beneficiaries

2.      17.2% of male beneficiaries exhibited substantially increased risk for CVD

3.      7.1% of male non-beneficiaries exhibited substantially increased risk for CVD

4.      68.5% of female beneficiaries exhibited substantially increased risk for CVD

5.      63.3% of female non-beneficiaries exhibited substantially increased risk for CVD

6.      Children of beneficiaries displayed higher mean body mass index for their age than their control peers.

The study concluded that albeit microcredit was another means by which Jamaicans could support themselves in these difficult financial times.

The researchers in the joint were:

1.      Claremont Kirton

2.      Colette Cunningham-Myrie

3.      Georgia McLeod

4.      Georgiana Gordon-Strachan

5.      Kristin Fox

6.      Raphael Fraser

7.      Terrence Forrester

Micro-credit was another means of financing that is becoming popular aside from depending on increasing remittances based on the JCC (Jamaica Chamber of Commerce) Conference Board's Survey of Consumer Confidence published in July 2015 as explained in my blog article entitled “World Bank's Global Remittance Slowdown - Why Jamaica's Remittance will slow in 2016 as Saudi Arabia Runs out of US Dollars”.

With more money to spend, the working class now had more disposable income. Consequently, they could spoil themselves as well as their children by opting to eat more unhealthy foods, such as fast food, canned foods as well as packaged snacks high in refined carbohydrates, fats and salt.

This change in diet due to their increasing wealth corresponds with my conclusion that it persons with more disposable income in Jamaica that are more malnourished because of their food choices based on UNFAO and IICA Reports as detailed in my blog article entitled “How UNFAO and IICA Reports indicate that Wealthy Jamaicans are malnourished”. 

So how did the researcher analyze the data to come to these conclusions?

Researcher study micro-credit beneficiaries in JNBS Database - Live data and non-beneficiaries as control

Their method of analysis looked at some 726 households of microcredit loan beneficiaries within the JNBS (Jamaica National Building Society) database of microcredit users between December 2007 and September 2008.

To make sure that they had a baseline for comparison, they also chose 726 control, or non-beneficiaries, by age, sex, and community to match with the 726 in the study. The researchers then administered a questionnaire to collect data on:

1.      Health

2.      Household expenditure

3.      Weight

4.      Height

5.      Waist circumference

6.      Blood pressure measurements

The research team took these measurements where necessary for an adults and one child (aged six-16 years) as a sample of each household.  Not sure how they chose which child and which adult, as this may be a source of bias, as they could have easily chose the fattest persons in the household to make their study look better.

There may be other factor that may be contributing to their increased risk of CVD's i.e. heart attack, Stroke and hypertension, as they may have been obese or eating fast food, canned foods as well as packaged snacks high in refined carbohydrates, fats and salt long before they began living on microcredit e.g. from remittances.

To counter this, they chose participants that had been receiving disbursements from JNBS micro financing scheme for the past two (2) years, borrowing as much as JA$30,000 to JA$500,000.

Good to note here that the microcredit loan beneficiaries' average annual per capita household expenditure was JA$160,574 while controls (non-beneficiaries) spent JA$108,578, as the non-beneficiaries probably had money coming from other sources, such as remittances as explained in my blog article entitled “How UNFAO and IICA Reports indicate that Wealthy Jamaicans are malnourished”. 

So what does this suggest about the wealth inequality in Jamaica?

Micro-credit and CVD - CVD's increase correlates to rise of micro-credit in Jamaica

It implies that the wealth inequality isn't really a factor in who is obese and has risk factors for CVD's i.e. heart attack, Stroke and hypertension and co-morbidity for other conditions such as co-morbidity.

Still, in their defense, there is an awful lot of published research that indicates that CVD risk correctly correlates to increasing wealth from increasing access to micro-credit. These researchers had focused primarily on whether or not persons using micro-credit schemes were more likely to end up in hospital with CVD's i.e. heart attack, Stroke and hypertension than other patients that were not using micro-credit facilities.

As such, the joint study is unique in that it uses the JNBS database of microcredit users instead of hospital records, opting to go out and measure the participants in the study and as such garner more accurate, relevant data on their condition instead of using hospital records.

This choice of focus was probably influenced by the fact that access to UHWI (University Hospital of the West Indies) records as well as other public hospitals was difficult to get not to mention poor record keeping as it relates to the security of patient medical records as noted in “Still No Privacy For Patients - Medical Records At State-Run Facilities Not Being Secured Despite Promised Changes More Than One Year Ago”, published Sunday December 1, 2013, by Tyrone Reid, The Jamaica Gleaner.

Of course, increasingly, health and money management programs are now being targeted at people who access micro-credit, to quote the researchers study: “We support the economic and other developmental benefits of microcredit financing but recommend that health promotion should be incorporated in such schemes to mitigate against a possible increase in CVD risk among beneficiaries. A number of initiatives report success in coupling microcredit with other innovative ideas inclusive of health promotion and education programmes ... and money management”.

This study in my mind is ground-breaking, as not only increase remittances but also access to micro-credit is changing the diet of Jamaicans to be more like the wealthier “Uptown” people and wealthier people in the island.

This may be what the UNFAO and IICA Reports may have seen when they'd declared that some 200,000 “wealthy” persons in Jamaica are malnourished as detailed in my blog article entitled “How UNFAO and IICA Reports indicate that Wealthy Jamaicans are malnourished”. 

The wealthy malnourished are not just “uptown people”; it may also include persons with increase disposable income thanks to the rise of micro-credit in Jamaica.

Here’s the link:

Richer but fatter: The unintended consequences of microcredit financing on household health and expenditure in Jamaica