National awareness campaign on NCDs kicks off today

Muscat - The Department of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) at the Ministry of Health (MoH), in cooperation with AstraZeneca Company, will launch on Thursday a national awareness campaign - Hemtak Maana - to control chronic diseases.

The campaign aims to raise awareness among patients living with chronic diseases and their families. It will focus on the role the patients play in controlling their diseases through self-monitoring, and adopting healthy lifestyles.

Non-communicable diseases are diseases that are not contagious in nature, chronic and often progress slowly. The four main non-communicable diseases (cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer and chronic respiratory disease) lead to 72 per cent of all mortality in Oman and 18 per cent of these mortalities are premature, occurring in the 30-69 year old age groups.

Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of all non-communicable disease deaths accounting for 36 per cent of these deaths in Oman. This is followed by cancer (11 per cent), diabetes (8 per cent) and chronic respiratory diseases (2 per cent).

The campaign will rely on the use of various tools to educate patients and their families, which include broadcasting educational videos and instructions on social media platforms, TV channels, applications and electronic pages. The campaign also targets health workers, for whom workshops and webinars will be conducted to discuss various topics related to the management of chronic diseases.

The COVID-19 pandemic is having an impact on those living with non-communicable diseases, given that patients with chronic diseases are more likely to develop severe symptoms and disease when infected with COVID-19.

Non-communicable diseases cause 72% of all mortality in the sultanate