Experts raise alarm on childhood obesity

Alarmingly, more than 10 per cent of children are now overweight or obese in the GCC.

These findings were revealed at the two-day ‘Childhood and Adolescent Obesity: A Whole System, Strategic Approach’ conference in Abu Dhabi which began on Monday.

Organised by Medineo, an international medical events organisation, endorsed by Health Authority – Abu Dhabi (HAAD) and supported by Khaleej Times and leading national and international medical institutions, the conference revealed that heart diseases, often caused by overweight and obesity, are now the number one killer in the UAE.

“There are 750 people dying every year from cardiovascular diseases in Abu Dhabi, meaning that 38 per cent of all deaths among young adults come from heart problems, which has become the biggest cause of death,” said Dr Jennifer Moore, section head of Family and School Health at HAAD.

“And there is a 35 per cent increase in the number of cardiovascular diseases predicted by 2020,” she added.

Worldwide, one in 10 school children (155 million) are overweight, while obesity and overweight is estimated to kill about 2.6 million people yearly, while 4.4 million people die of high cholesterol levels. Obesity means having too much body fat. It is different from being overweight, which means weighing too much.

The weight may come from muscle, bone, fat and/or body water. Both terms mean that a person’s weight is greater than what’s considered healthy for his or her height.

Asthma, arthritis, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, heart attackd and even cancer are caused by overweight and, more so, obesity.

Especially in the case of children and teenagers, there are severe psychological consequences, too much body fat leading to low self-esteem, being bullied in school and social isolation. Lack of physical activity and poor intake of fruit and vegetable are the main causes of obesity.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends a daily intake of minimum five portions of fruit and vegetables, as well as 60 minutes (for children) and 30 minutes (for adults) of physical activity.

“In the UAE, culture plays a big part in overfeeding children. Large portions and indulging children in fatty foods are related to love,” explained Lara Hussein, chief of Child Protection and officer in charge for UNICEF Gulf Area.

“About 19.7 per cent of children in the country are obese because of being influenced by a friend to eat unhealthy foods, the absence of family control, the increase in fast food restaurants and lack of education and awareness about keeping a healthy lifestyle,” said Hussein.

Dr Omniyat Al Hajeri, manager of Health Professional Licensing at HAAD, said that the Authority had recently done a screening on 190,000 UAE nationals. The results were pretty alarming: 71 per cent of adults suffer from at least one cardiovascular disease, 68 per cent are overweight or obese and the numbers of death caused by a heart ailment will increase by 25 per cent by 2020.

“In 2010, we found that 30 per cent of school children were overweight or obese and 70 per cent of them are likely to stay overweight or obese as adults,” she revealed. “The reason is high intake of high energy food with little exercise.”

As much as 18 per cent of children in the UAE go to a fast food restaurant three to five times in a week and only one in three children get the WHO recommended one hour per day of physical activity.

According to Professor Tawfik Khoja, director of GCC Health Council, in the UAE there is an annual increase of one per cent in obesity, and the same in diabetes.

“A 2005 study showed that among UAE female children, obesity was the same as males at 14 years old, 2.3 times than the international standards. At 18 years of age, UAE female obesity was 1.9 fold higher than the international standard, nearly one-half the rate of obesity among UAE males at the same age,” he described.

“It is very good that the ministry of Health in the UAE is trying to develop a public health law, which would be the very first one on the Gulf.”

Yet, as Khoja pointed out, it is not just the government’s job to do something about it, it is also down to each individual to do the hard thing and change the eating habits and generally the lifestyle to a healthier one.

silvia@khaleejtimes.com

• UAE