Survey finds health conference has positive impact

| 10/11/2014

(CNS): A survey of people who attended last year’s Cayman Islands national health conference revealed that over half of them had made healthy changes in their lives as a result of things they had learned. Delegates who responded to the survey said they were making better choices when it came to diet, increased levels of activity and drinking more water. Twenty-one per cent said that had made a ‘significant positive change’ and 42% a ‘positive change’. Over 70% of respondents also said their entire families were influenced by the things they had learned at the conference and had made some changes. These included taking time to talk with the family, eating together and eating healthier together, as well as better work/life balance.

An improvement in the way people dealt with their mental health was also recorded as a result of people attending the conference, with an impressive 68% of respondents making a change such as taking breaks when feeling stressed, undertaking exercise, as well as breathing exercises and meeting with a group of likewise individuals throughout the month to talk through any problems.

With a clear indication that the conference is helping people to be more healthy and make positive lifestyle changes, organisers said the fifth annual healthcare conference opens on 20 November at The Ritz-Carlton, with a focus on ‘Winning the war against chronic non-communicable diseases’.

The survey also showed that people feel the Cayman community is promoting more wellness programmes and fun physical activities, with 71% saying they had noticed more publicity on these types of programmes and events. As a result, some joined weight loss programmes and stop smoking courses.

“Making a positive impact on the health andwellness of the Cayman Islands was always a core goal of these events and the Ministry is delighted that this survey demonstrates exactly the results we were hoping for,” said Osbourne Bodden, the health minister.

Sponsors for this year include: Tenet Healthcare, Tower, Cayman Islands Health Services Authority, Dart, Health City Cayman Islands, CONCACAF, UnitedHealthcare Global, Cancer Treatment Centers of America, Cleveland Clinic, Baptist Health International, Marsh, Cerner, BritCay, University of California-San Diego, Aitheras Aviation Group, Aon Risk Solutions, CINICO, Broward Health, The Wellness Centre, Fidelity, Heart Health Centre, Saint Luke’s Mid-America Heart Institute, Generali and many other exhibitors and not-for-profit organisations.

Visit www.healthcareconference.ky to register or stay up to date on the Facebook page.
 

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Category: Health

About the Author ()

Comments (6)

Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed

  1. anon. says:

    This conference should be held every 2 years instead of annually. After a few more years of this every year stuff you'll find that the conference themes will become super specialized because you've already covered the major broad stuff. When that happens there will be trouble attracting numbers, which leads to my nexts point.

    With the amount of resources required and solicited to pull this off, you need to push attracting more foreign attendees. The calibre is there for this to happen, but it seems like it's only foreign speakers and a local audience that you're going for. Keep this in mind for the next one.

     

  2. Anonymous says:

    Does my wife know you are using her photograph for this story?

    • Anonymous says:

      Your wife? Oh hell,we have a serial mormon.

    • Knot S Smart says:

      Darn… And I was just wondering if I told her she had a beautiful body – would she hold it against me…

  3. Anonymous says:

    Why not work with the children also? Once the lessons have been learned there will no longer be a need for such conferences and programs in a few years. The next generation will know how to eat properly and know how to live a healthy lifestyle.  For now this is perfect for the parents and adults that don't know how to take care of themselves. 

  4. Anonymous says:

    So, is the point of the Conference at the Ritz to make attendees healthier, or to improve health services (or something)? If its the former, great but how about all those sponsors just put their money to wellness programmes instead of an expensive conference at the Ritz. If its the later then the survey is meaningless and merely an indication fothe sort of smoke and mirrors these kinds of groups engage in to make themelves feel good about having a meeting at the Rtiz. – Look, we're getting healthier so our conference must be doing a good job. Lets just not do a survey about the real-word impacts that our meetings were supposed to achieve, because, well …

     

    And, yes, I saw the part where they felt that "the Cayman community is promoting more wellnessprogrammes". But there is no correlation made between that and the previous conferences. The survey resutls are meaningless as justification for having another conference, except if you're worried about the health of the attendess, who we must assume are similar to the list of sponsors i.,e, the people at Tennet Healthcare, Tower Marketing, etc., etc., etc.