Stepwise Survey To Identify Prevalence Of Diabetes In Qatar
Date
3/29/2023 3:00:58 AM
(MENAFN- The Peninsula) fazeena saleem |
The Peninsula
Doha: The Ministry of Public health (MoPH) will conduct a nationwide STEPwise survey to identify the prevalence of diabetes in Qatar, a senior official has said.
The survey will cover epidemiological samples representing the entire population in the country and it will provide with accurate details about the prevalence of diabetes in Qatar, said Co-chair of the Qatar National Diabetes Committee and Director of the Qatar Metabolic Institute, Prof Abdul-Badi Abou-Samra.
“The STEPwise Survey will be very important; we had the survey in 2012... It will be launched by the Ministry of Public Health this year in collaboration with the planning office,” said Prof Abou-Samra.
The 2012 Qatar STEPwise Survey reported prevalence of diabetes in the country at 16.7% among adult Qatari nationals aged 18–64 years, of which one-third were unaware of their disease status.
“The STEPwise Survey will be and epidemiological representative of the Qatar population. Every other estimate of diabetes may not represent actual numbers, because those are based on random screening here in Qatar,” said Prof Abou-Samra while speaking to the media recently.
The STEPwise Survey will be able to calculate the correct number of incidents, said Prof Abou-Samra.
He also said that the survey will help develop the next National Diabetic Strategy.
Qatar's National Diabetes Strategy (QNDS) for 2016–22 is designed to achieve the future vision of preventing diabetes and its complications and improving health and quality of life in Qatar. The strategic mission is to increase awareness of the disease, mobilise prevention efforts and increase access to integrated care delivery to prevent diabetes and its complications.
Diabetes is a major health challenge faced by Qatar. To address the growing serious problem, several steps have been taken by MoPH and healthcare providers.
Among those steps, healthcare providers identify at-risk individuals and undiagnosed pre-diabetics to halt and potentially reverse the progression of diabetes and its complications.“We hope all measures we have taken will have an impact on the survey and help reduce the rise of diabetes incidents,” said Prof Abou-Samra.
According to available data, 25% of the adult population in the country is pre-diabetic; and about 42% of pregnant women suffer from gestational diabetes. Also obesity is one of the major risk factors for gestational diabetes and pregnancy complications. About 3% of the adult population in Qatar has un-diagnosed diabetes and they do not know that they are diabetic.
Another 45% of the adults in Qatar have a BMI of above 30 which is one of the major reasons for diabetes in Qatar.
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