Health problem in Qatar - Essay Example

 Qatar and health Qatar is located in the Middle East, neighboring Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. It is rich in oil with a land area of 4184 square miles. The country's population is estimated to be 825 000 people. According to the World Health Organization, the country ranks among the top countries spending on health per person. The increased expenditure has seen a phenomenal decrease in both mortality rate and morbidity rate over time. The county has about 250000 natives who have all benefited from the country's oil wealth. These have been to the detriment of the Qatar peoples’ physical health. Initially, like other people in the Arab gulf, they were in a desert dwelling hence were much more active physically. However, that has changed over time with camels being replaced with cars and home deliveries and fast foods has taken over the place of home cooking. Much worse is the fact that even housework, which could expose one to some little activity, has been taken over by maids and nannies. The excessive amount of money people have in Qatar today, has further modified their social behavior, hence they have increased their smoking habits and hanging out at a fast food joint as they continue taking more snacks hence increasing further their caloric intake. As such, there has been an increase in the percentage of adults and children suffering from diabetes. Currently there are about 45 percent of adults suffering from obesity and over 40 percent of children are suffering from obesity. In a five year projection, 73 percent of women and 69 percent of men in Qatar are likely to be suffering from diabetes(S. et al.,34). Together with the high rates of obesity, there has been increased prevalence of diabetes, which is mostly as a result of heavy weight. Apart from the weight and unhealthy eating related issues, there is also increased number of birth defects among most births in Qatar a factor that is attributed to the marrying of close family members including cousins hence the increased rated of mutations. Therefore, to reduce these there has to be extensive genetic counselling among the people of Qatar so that they can understand the need to marry people that they are not related to. To deal with obesity, there is need to have a multidisciplinary approach to the issue. It needs intervention of all stakeholders to ensure that there is sanity in the eating and physical activity behavior among the people of Qatar. One of the major ways of mitigating this epidemic in the country is through health education among the people of Qatar. Their eating habits have been made worse by the cultural practices that dictates one to have enough to eat while visiting a friend and failure to do so is violating the cultural values. This health education and creation of awareness among the people is fundamental in reducing this problem. Health education can be approached in a number of ways to ensure that all the targeted people are reached early enough before the calamity strikes. To start with, is introducing this health education in the educational curriculum of the country. Children from a tender age should have the vital information on health behaviors from their education system. The effects of these unhealthy behaviors should be taught to children while in school at the same time, thought about the best ways of modifying their eating behavior. This has been practiced in quite a number of countries all over the world and has borne fruits with the end result being reduced rates of diabetes among children. For instance, in the United States there is increased awareness among school going children on the best practices and foods to take over time. The most recent move by the United States on the fight against obesity is the first lady Mitchell Obama’s “let’s move” approach. This has seen a phenomenal decrease in unhealthy eating behaviors among children and has led to increased numbers of chefs volunteering to putting in place healthy foods (Hammoud et al., pg. 150). Furthermore, women have moved from exclusive breastfeeding, which has led to increased exposure of children to unhealthy food at a tender age. Thus, there is need of introducing this kind of education among breastfeeding women. More so, they should delay early introduction of solid foods to the children and ensure that they do not give high calorie snacks in the process. This close monitoring of what children take from a tender age will ensure that there is a low level of childhood obesity, hence mitigating its consequences on the children’s later life. There is a surge of the KFC and MacDonals food outlets all over Qatar, a factor that has led to the availability of these foods to the population at large. Thus, since food intakes the major cause of obesity, the government should pay much attention on the location of the fast foods and availability of these foods. A policy regulating selling of these foods will play a great role in ensuring that there is reduced intake of the food. For instance, the government should ensure that there is minimal availability of these foods, especially in schools or around schools. This will help in taking down the prevalence of children suffering from obesity, in the country at large. There should be increased number of cycling paths to ensure that there is increased space for children’s physical activity. This will provide a motivation for members of the community to engage in more physical activity that will lead to them spending more calories as they take in. For instance, there is increased level of sedentary lifestyle whereby people have resulted in using of vehicles when moving around hence they have mitigated all the small chances they have to utilize the calories that they have ingested. At the same time, there should be increased education in the parents so that they ensure that their children are involved in more in exercising to shed off excess calories. Conclusion All these interventions will go a long way in reducing the level of obesity in the country. Consequently, there will be a phenomenal reduction in the prevalence of non-communicable disease like diabetes that is coupled with heavy weight among the children and adults alike. Therefore, adequate timely intervention is fundamental I easing the country with the health burden it has today of mostly the communicable diseases. Involvement of all stakeholder sis the only key to kicking this epidemic out of Qatar and bring up a healthy generation of children and adults free from most of the non-communicable diseases as experienced in Qatar. Works Cited Hammoud, Maya M, et al. "Challenges and Opportunities of US and Arab Collaborations in Health Services Research: A Case Study from Qatar." Global Journal of Health Science 4.6 (2012): 148-159. MEDLINE. Web. 13 Dec. 2014. S., Abu Yaacob et al. “The Effect of Obesity in Pregnancy on Perinatal Outcome in Qatar.” Qatar Medical Journal 11 (2002): 32–35. Web.  Read More