iPhone | iPad
Android
Huawei
Dubbed 'a distinguished achievement', the initiative is supported by a Dh100-million research fund
KT APPDOWNLOAD
Disease Free Lifestyle Campaign Takes Off
DUBAI — Promoting the idea that healthy habits start from home, the UAE Ministry of Health launched an initiative to educate families, especially mothers, on adopting a disease free lifestyle.
Launching the Healthy Family Initiative on Wednesday, the UAE Minister of Health Dr Hanif Hassan said that the country is investing a lot of money on managing lifestyle diseases such as diabetes.
“We still need to spend more on research and education,” he said.
The initiative will educate families and school children on how to manage diabetes on a daily basis at home and school. It will also train healthcare professionals, especially nurses on better management techniques. Other health issues to be tackled under the initiative later include obesity, smoking cessation, safe pregnancy and child safety.
“Educating and empowering our families and communities with the right information will help us face these health challenges effectively,” said the minister.
The three-year programme will be implemented through primary healthcare centres, schools, shopping malls and by directly addressing Johnson & Johnson consumers.
Diabetes is a major health concern in the UAE and nearly 25 per cent of the population is either diabetic or pre-diabetic. On World Diabetes Day (November 14), the ministry rolled out a cabinet approved year long National Diabetes Campaign targeting the entire population.
“The key manager for diabetes is not a doctor or nurse but a mother. A healthy lifestyle starts from home,” said Wim Boogaerts, Chairman of the Johnson & Johnson Corporate Citizenship Trust, Middle East.
To reach out to mothers at home, the company will launch a website that will give complete information on preventing and managing the disease. Other outreach programmes include training and educational material to doctors at primary healthcare centres.
“We will also carry out intense screening programmes in schools teaching students and trainers how to identify the disease and catch it early on,” he said.
Earlier this year, the Juvenile Diabetes Education Centre (JDEC), the Emirates Diabetes Society and the UAE Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences University launched the JDEC Multidisciplinary Diabetes Education Course, which aims to establish the first professionally certified and recognized diabetes educators in the UAE.
The centre has already trained 80 nurses to manage diabetes while another 145 are on the waiting list. Recently the ministry also trained 60 nurses specifically to manage the disease.
More news from
She says the money is going to help arthritis, chronic fatigue and cardiovascular health studies
Do not give out bank account details and other financial information, the authority said
Researchers say a record spate of wildfires this year has released massive amounts of carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere
The group is accused of deliberately misleading the public about limitations of recycling
The decision will encourage visa violators to amend their status and take advantage of the two-month amnesty programme which runs until October 31
A South Korean man hid the body of his girlfriend on his balcony by stacking bricks and pouring on a 10cm layer of cement
The season now has a four-week lull before a US-Mexico-Brazil sequence starting in Austin, Texas, on October 20