National squads competing in four categories aim to strengthen legacy after winning seven medals in 2023 in Saudi Arabia
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The ‘diabetes explosion’ in the UAE is not due to poor health services but because of obesity and a sedentary lifestyle of residents, coupled with the social and economic development in the country, said a senior health official.
“Having foods with high percentage of sugars, fats, starches, less fruits and vegetables, physical inactivity, obesity and tobacco usage are all contributing factors for spread of the disease which is also connected to several behavioural and genetic factors,” he said while outlining the ministry’s efforts in combating the lifestyle disorder. “Unfortunately, several GCC and Arab countries face this problem...but the disease is not connected to weak health services provided by the ministry but rather to the economic and social development of any country,” he explained.
Giving a background of health services, Dr Serkal said the country had made great efforts in social, economic and health development. “Such development has had a direct impact on the life expectancy of individuals that has improved to 79 years.”
“Incidence of death is 8/1000 in children while a number of infectious diseases have been eliminated. This progress has put the UAE within the advanced countries’ categories,” he said.
According to International Diabetes Foundation (IDF) statistics, 18.98 per cent people in the UAE suffer from diabetes whereas the total cost of diabetes treatment ranges between $1,500 and $3,000 per year (Dh360 million). Recently, the UAE’s diabetes ranking has improved from the third highest in the world to the 15th.
“The ministry is continuously supervising the status of the disease and has conducted major research studies in this regard,” he said.
“We have also organised a number of awareness campaigns and are keeping an eye on new case diseases emerging in the records of health centres and other health authorities.”
“We have also adopted a strategy to control diabetes, ways of prevention from Diabetes (type 2), improve health services quality, support all evaluation diabetes process and means, encourage research and studies that are related to diabetes and enable patients to control their quality services,” explained Dr Serkal.
He said the ministry will continue to build an updated database on NCDs and establish a national record for such diseases.
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