(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) By advising residents to eat right and exercise more, the UAE health ministry hopes to control the burgeoning burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) indirectly, according to an official.
The ministry has readied a national strategy for NCDs that will also include a national nutritional plan and tobacco control measures. The entire strategy was discussed at the conference on healthy lifestyles and NCDs held in Saudi Arabia on Sunday.
Though the ministry had launched a nutritional strategy in 2010, not much work was done to implement the policies over the past two years.
"We shifted focus from a single nutritional plan to a comprehensive NCDs strategy since diet and disease are interlinked," explained Dr Salah Al Badawi, Head of National Programme for Diabetes at the ministry.
The NCD strategy will prioritise action against four diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, respiratory disorders and cancers since all are caused by common risk factors including obesity, poor diet, physical inactivity and smoking.
A draft strategy for 2011-2021 has been prepared jointly by health authorities and will soon be presented to the ministers' cabinet for further action.
"Influencing behaviour and changing attitudes is our ultimate goal," he said.
Dr Mahmoud Fikri, Assistant Undersecretary for Health Policies and Chairman of Diabetes National Committee at the ministry, said, "Fighting infectious diseases and maintaining health of human beings are among the top strategic priorities of the ministry due to the rapid increase in the population of the country."
The UAE draft is loosely based on the GCC's strategy on NCDs and will aim at reducing people's exposure to causative risk factors, improving services to prevent and treat these leading health problems as well as increase national capacity.
"We need a comprehensive approach to tackle all these diseases together since they share a common risk factor," he explained. "Obesity that can lead to high blood pressure and heart diseases, smoking, poor diet and inactive lifestyle has been identified as the main causes for these disease. And the strategy will tackle all these issues in a single plan," said Dr Badawi.
At present, there is only one active national strategy and that tackles diabetes.
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