Health survey paints a grim picture of lifestyle diseases

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in Abu Dhabi, accounting for 37 per cent of all fatalities, says the Department of Health in its latest release. Health Statistics 2016, released yesterday, sounds the alarm on lifestyle diseases. There were 3,283 deaths in Abu Dhabi last year. But deaths from cardiovascular diseases increased by 2 per cent compared with 2015.

Startlingly, the report said that a screening programme for Emiratis called Weqaya, or prevention, revealed that 71 per cent had at least one cardiovascular disease risk factor – a fact many of them were unaware of and had thus not sought treatment.

Deaths from heart disease was followed by “injuries”, a category that includes road accident deaths, as the second most prevalent in the emirate – at 20 per cent – and then by cancer at 15 per cent. In 2008, there were 350 cancer deaths – in 2016 there were 421 deaths.

“The reason why cardiovascular death is on the rise globally and in the UAE is … related to modifiable cardiovascular risk factors in the population like diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidaemia, smoking, sedentary lifestyle, unhealthy diet and obesity. Other factors like family history, age and gender will not by themselves explain why prevalence has risen in the past years,” said Dr Maged Fahim, a cardiologist at Medeor Hospital.

“Many patients have uncontrolled modifiable risk factors due to bad lifestyle habits and a lack of awareness about the impact this has on their health,” Dr Fahim said.

The best way to tackle this problem, Dr Fahim said, is to increase public awareness “about how important it is to achieve control over these risk factors, to increase access to family healthcare clinics with national guidelines tailored to achieving a structured healthcare approach for reaching target goals for these risk factors”.

Countries like the UK, he said, give incentives to family

physicians to reach smoking cessation targets.

“It doesn’t have to be financial, it could be in the form of reduced CME [continuous medical education] hours for renewing their licence, free attendance to CME activities.

“Also incentives for patients themselves by giving discounts on public services based on objective improvement in their risk factors like weight loss follow up and diabetes control follow up. Also insurance companies should help by giving discounts to people who achieve objective targets instead of raising insurance costs – as the aim is to help people improve.”

While there were 1,120 deaths of Emiratis last year, that was four more than in 2015.

However, the 2,161 deaths of expatriates last year was a rise of 115 over 2015.

Birth rates increased, despite declining total fertility rates, at 16,782 babies born to Emiratis, 327 more than 2016. Expatriate birth also increased last year, by 542, to 22,911.

The report indicated that the UAE’s total fertility rate had declined from 4.4 per woman in 1990 to 1.8 in 2013, according to World Health Statistics 2015.

Declining birth rates were attributed to urbanisation, delayed marriage, changing attitudes about family size and women’s increased education and work opportunities.

Emiratis make up 18.2 per cent of Abu Dhabi’s population and 67.3 per cent of them are under 30. Expatriates are mainly between 20 and 40 and many are employed in construction and live in labour camps. Of the 19.9 per cent deaths due to injuries, 20.7 per cent of these are from occupational injuries.

Sheikh Abdulla bin Mohammad Al Hamed, the chairman of the Department of Health, said: “Providing quality health care for the people in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi continues to be a top priority on the Abu Dhabi Government agenda and one of the strategic pillars in the country’s sustainability plans.

“The healthcare sector in the emirate of Abu Dhabi has witnessed a remarkable growth in quality and quantity over the past few years.”

Mohamed Al Hameli, acting under-secretary of the Department of Health, said: “The report … helps us project future healthcare needs and put the necessary plans to meet those demands.”