NON-communicable diseases are socially determined and looking for a social solution is an important aspect of decreasing the number of NCDs in the country.
This was one of the issues raised by Ministry of Health's NCD national adviser Dr Isimeli Tukana during the second Pacific Islands Research Symposium in Nadi yesterday.
"NCD is a social issue in terms of eating and smoking and drinking alcohol which is one of the things that we are addressing," Dr Tukana said.
He said people in the country were dying at the age of 40 from NCDs which meant that they were developing symptoms of the diseases at the age of 20.
"If that's the case, that means that they were consuming NCD causing food, drinking alcohol and not exercising when they were children," Dr Tukana said.
"So these are some of the factors that we have taken into account and some of them are caused socially," he said.
The theme of the symposium is Social Determinants of Health and is expected to end today.