Plan for 150 minutes of drill at schools
DHA’S NEW SCHOOL HEALTH POLICY WILL ENCOURAGE STUDENTS TO EAT FIVE PORTIONS OF FRUITS AND VEGETABLES
Health authorities in Dubai will push for 150 minutes of physical exercise per week in schools and encourage students to have five portions of fruits and vegetables every day.
The Dubai Health Authority (DHA) yesterday launched the school health policy for the emirate to create a safe, healthy and motivating school environment for pupils, according to Dr Manal Al Taryam, CEO of the Primary Healthcare Sector at the DHA.
This is in line with the Dubai Health Strategy 2016-2021 and the UAE National Health Agenda Vision 2021 which aims at reducing childhood obesity from the current 14.4 per cent to 12 per cent by 2021.
The comprehensive policy has three key components — disease prevention and early detection, health information and research systems, and encouraging students to lead a healthy lifestyle — all of these will be part of a wider five-year health policy aimed at cutting back obesity.
12 programmes
As part of the strategy, the authority will launch 12 programmes based on these three components that are applicable for private schools.
The 12 programmes include a project to encourage students to eat five portions of ■ vegetables and fruits a day, to increase physical activity to 150 minutes a week or 30 minutes per day excluding weekends, compliance with the essential immunisation programme, an awareness and screening for non-communicable diseases, dental visits, visual and obesity early-detection check-up and overall health supervision according to DHA standards.
The DHA also aims to increase fruit and vegetable intake among students aged 7-15 years-old, encourage healthier food consumption, increase physical activity among them and decrease obesity — in line with Dubai Plan 2021 and UAE National Health Agenda 2021.
Comprehensive policy
Dr Al Taryam said: “A holistic school health environment is needed to protect children and bring out the best in them. We designed this policy after carefully considering all these factors. We have worked with various governmental authorities in the UAE to jointly design a truly comprehensive school health policy,”
Dr Nahed Monsef, Director of Health Affairs Department at the Dubai Health Authority, said, “Immunisation is an important way of protecting children from some illnesses — including those that suddenly become a bigger threat.”
“While the Authority already has several initiatives in place, a wider five-year policy will be extremely comprehensive. concentrating on 3 major themes which are: healthy lifestyle promotion, disease prevention and early detection and strengthening the health informatics system.”
Dr Ayesha Al Theeb from the school health department at the DHA said: “For a successful school health policy, we need to ensure all stakeholders including parents and staff truly understand the importance of leading a healthy lifestyle.”