The Non-Communicable Disease Profile of Jamaican Children: Self-Reported Morbidity, Respiratory Disease, Emerging Cardiometabolic Risk, Socioeconomic Vulnerability, and Comparative Evidence from Jamaica, the Caribbean, and the Globe

Abstract

Background: Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are increasingly recognised as life-course phenomena whose biological and behavioural antecedents frequently begin during childhood. However, the NCD literature on Jamaica has concentrated predominantly on adults, leaving the childhood profile comparatively underdeveloped. Objective: This study examines the self-reported NCD profile, functional health, health insurance, and socioeconomic circumstances of Jamaican children aged 0–14 years and situates the findings within Jamaican, Caribbean, and global evidence. Methods: A secondary cross-sectional analysis was conducted using supplied survey outputs containing 926 children aged 0–14 years. Descriptive prevalence estimates and age-cohort chi-square analyses were interpreted alongside published epidemiological evidence on asthma, obesity, and paediatric NCD risk. Results: Asthma was the most frequently reported childhood chronic condition at 6.0%, whereas epilepsy was reported by 0.5%, other mental disorders by 0.4%, heart disease by 0.3%, diabetes and hypertension by 0.2% each, and cancer, arthritis, depression, and dementia by approximately 0.1% each. Functional health was comparatively favourable, with 96.0% of valid child observations reporting no difficulty, yet 86.1% of children were uninsured, and 51.0% were classified within the two poorest socioeconomic quintiles. Jamaican external evidence presents a less reassuring future-risk profile: 23.3% of school-going adolescents aged 13–17 years were overweight and 9.2% obese in the 2017 Global School-based Student Health Survey. Conclusion: The childhood NCD profile in Jamaica is characterised by relatively low reported established cardiometabolic disease but appreciable respiratory morbidity and substantial upstream metabolic and socioeconomic vulnerability. Childhood NCD policy should integrate asthma control with obesity prevention, healthy food environments, physical activity, surveillance, early risk detection, and equitable access to preventive care.