T&T 14th Unhealthiest Country in the world

Trinidad and Tobago has been ranked 14th on a list of the unhealthiest countries in the world by Business Insider.

A new global health ranking has identified the healthiest — and unhealthiest — countries in 2019. The Indigo Wellness Index, compiled and led by Richard Davies at the economics consultancy Bloomsbury Economics and published by the investment business Letter One in the new journal Global Perspectives, is one of the most comprehensive records of its kind to date, covering 191 countries. The index created a series of rankings based on 10 key measures, ordering the countries from the weakest performers (ranked No. 1) to the strongest (ranked, for example, No. 191).

The 10 measures were healthy life expectancy, blood pressure, blood glucose (diabetes risk), obesity, depression, unhappiness, alcohol use, tobacco use, inactivity (too little exercise), and government spending on healthcare. It then calculated a ratio to assess how close each country is to the best score overall — the worst score is zero, while the best score is one.

While Canada came out on top as the healthiest country, war-torn sub-Saharan African countries were some of the worst performers. Perhaps more surprising, though, are the poor rankings for countries considered to be idyllic, such as St. Lucia and Barbados, which, the data show, came down to poor diet and lack of exercise.

According to the report published on March 19th, T&T received poor scores for depression, blood pressure, and blood glucose. Five other countries from the region also made the list: the Dominican Republic was 18th, Jamaica – 16th, Haiti – 9th, Barbados – 5th, and St Lucia – 2nd. South Africa was listed as the unhealthiest country in the world.