RIYADH: A high-profile international conference on healthy lifestyle and noncommunicable diseases in the Arab world and the Middle East will be launched here today under the aegis of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah. This is the first conference of its kind being hosted by Saudi Arabia to raise political awareness about noncommunicable diseases and their serious impact on health and socioeconomic development in the region.
"The conference will seek to devise strategies that are needed to control noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) in the region," said a press statement released by the Ministry of Health yesterday. The inaugural session of the conference will begin with a roundtable discussion moderated by Minister of Health Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah at the local Faisaliyah Hotel. Abdullateef Al-Zayani, the GCC secretary-general, will also deliver a speech during the opening session.
The formal sessions of the conference will start Monday with a keynote speech by Al-Rabeeah. "One of the major objectives behind holding this four-day international event is to strengthen political commitment for combating noncommunicable diseases in the region by scaling up action across the various government sectors, according to the UN General Assembly Political Declaration of September 2011," said Khaled M. Al-Mirghalani, spokesman of the Ministry of Health.The event has been organized by the ministry in cooperation with the World Health Organization. About 14 health ministers and top officials from the member states of the Arab League and Middle Eastern countries will attend the conference. Senior officials of the member states of the WHO from the eastern Mediterranean region and representatives of some UN agencies and other major international organizations will also participate in the conference.
The conference will also be attended by experts from different countries, governmental agencies and scientific societies.
Spelling out the details of the conference, Al-Mirghalani said that the event would seek to review evidence relating to the magnitude and impact of noncommunicable diseases on health and on the economy of regional countries. Arab countries have made substantial progress in improving life expectancy and increasing access to health care since the 1950s.
Major problems, however, still remain. Public health challenges include obesity, diabetes, high maternal mortality, malnutrition and a wide disparity of income between rural and urban areas in different countries. There have been differences in approach among countries in this region insofar as emphasis has been placed on curative rather than preventive care. This is in addition to relatively weak public health institutions, a variable quality of health care, a lack of capacity in policy making and unresponsive and inequitable health systems.
Referring to the highlights of the conference, Al-Mirghalani said that the event will also endorse strategies to address the challenges faced by these diseases and review cost-effective measures that countries can adopt in the areas of surveillance, prevention and health care in the Arab world. The conference aims to discuss the current "enormity of noncommunicable diseases" and their subsequent social and economic impact on the whole region and especially the Arab world, home to over 350 million people.
"Furthermore, it aims to put forward effective solutions, seeking to alleviate the effect of such diseases upon health and prompt apt responses at all levels," he added. The MoH spokesman said that the conference intended to raise general awareness of the primary role to be assumed by governments with regard to controlling the increasing prevalence of noncommunicable diseases and their impact on social and economic development.
This will help in formulating strategies by the governments in the region and in laying out the structures and the tools necessary for promoting political commitment, he added. "It is also intended to serve as an international and regional forum to make clear that the governments' objectives can only be achieved if they make strategic policies and involve leaders and decision-makers at all levels in the accomplishment of such policies," said Al-Mirghalani.
The Gulf countries, namely, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, have undergone a rapid change in their socioeconomic situation, food consumption patterns and lifestyle and health status during the past four decades. This has been caused mainly by the sharp increase in income due to oil revenues. In the Gulf, communicable (infectious) diseases have diminished and diet-related chronic diseases have become the main health concern.
The concept of food-based dietary guidelines (FBDG) has been promoted by the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization of the United Nations since the 1992 international conference on nutrition in Rome. The actions needed to promote healthy nutrition and a healthy lifestyle have been emphasized at several meetings in Gulf counties in the past. Nevertheless, this Riyadh conference will go a long way in formulating effective policies to cut down NCDs in the Gulf and the Arab world at large.
Al-Mirghalani said that the event would also highlight information on the spread and enormity of noncommunicable diseases. He said that the conference would help formulate policies that have to do with surveillance, prevention and the improvement of health care services to be provided to patients suffering from noncommunicable diseases. "An elaborate road map should be made for the plan of action," he added.
He further pointed out that the event would seek to strengthen international and regional cooperation in the control and prevention of noncommunicable diseases in order to create a proper environment in the Arab World and the Middle East. The discussions in the conference will help to ensure a better life for people in the region. To this end, he noted that according to the WHO, the average life expectancy in the Eastern Mediterranean region has leapt from 51 years in 1970 to current 70 years.
In fact, some countries in the Arab world and even the Greater Middle East have shown impressive health records and projections during the last few years. The under-five mortality has diminished from 100 deaths per 1,000 births in 1990 to 68 deaths per 1,000 births in 2008 in the region. Nevertheless, there remains a lot to be done when it comes to many other aspects of public health, especially lifestyle and its correlation with noncommunicable diseases in the region.
"The interest of the WHO to organize such a conference comes in the wake of new evidence highlighting the burden of noncommunicable diseases in the Eastern Mediterranean region," said the MoH spokesman, adding that malnutrition still remains a major health problem in some countries in the region and that the growing trend in obesity poses a major challenge for governments. Obesity, he said, was associated with four main noncommunicable diseases, namely, cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes and chronic respiratory disease.
The growing number of people afflicted with these diseases imposes a heavy cost on families as well as the governments in the region, he noted. "Despite the significant improvements in the quality of lives of men and women in the region, which was unimaginable 25 years ago, these men and women are still more likely to die early compared to their counterparts in many other countries," lamented Al-Mirghalani while referring to the current scientific information and available evidence.
He pointed out that the WHO released the first report on the status of noncommunicable diseases during the first global ministerial conference on healthy lifestyles in 2010 in Moscow highlighting the role of international organizations, especially the WHO, in checking the prevalence of noncommunicable diseases. This report is the first of its kind that gives an overview of the global burden of noncommunicable diseases, risk factors and their determinants, the official said.
The report also sets a baseline for monitoring trends of noncommunicable diseases in the future and to assess the progress made in countries dealing with the epidemic since 2010. The report also presents a brief overview of best practices in the areas of action against noncommunicable diseases, which are surveillance, prevention and health care.
On the sidelines of the conference, six workshops will be organized including a workshop mainly focusing on balanced diet for human consumption. This workshop will be conducted by the Ministry of Agriculture. Another entitled "exercise for a better life" will be conducted by the Kingdom's General Presidency of Youth Welfare. A workshop on nutrition and nutritional information will be organized by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry in cooperation with the Riyadh-based Food & Drug Authority.
Another workshop on effective ways to use means of social communication and information technology for health awareness will be organized. A workshop on promoting research in the fields of control and prevention of noncommunicable diseases will also be organized, while the last workshop will focus on tobacco and its hazards. The conference will also focus on the NCDs in global context with special reference to the increasing trend in developing countries where, the transition imposes more constraints to deal with the problems.
By 2020, it is predicted that these diseases will be causing seven out of every 10 deaths in developing countries. Many of the noncommunicable diseases can be prevented by tackling associated risk factors. Among noncommunicable diseases, special attention is devoted to cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer and chronic pulmonary diseases. Their burden is affecting countries worldwide but with a growing trend in developing countries.
Preventive strategies must take into account the growing trend of risk factors correlated to these diseases. The NCDs are more and more prevalent in developing countries where they double the burden of infective diseases. If the present trend is maintained, the health systems in low-and middle-income countries will be unable to support the burden of disease. Prominent causes for heart disease, diabetes, cancer and pulmonary diseases can be prevented but urgent (preventive) actions are needed and efficient strategies should deal seriously with risk factors like smoking, alcohol, physical inactivity and western diet.
Up to 80 percent of cases of coronary heart disease and 90 percent of cases of Type 2 diabetes could potentially be avoided through changing lifestyle factors. One-third of all types of cancer could be avoided by eating healthily, maintaining a healthy weight and exercising regularly. It was estimated that in high-risk populations, an optimum fish consumption of 4060 grams per day would lead to approximately a 50 percent reduction in death from coronary heart disease.
A recent study based on data from 36 countries reported that fish consumption is associated with a reduced risk of death from all causes. Unfortunately, fish consumption is very low even in some countries known for their large supply of fish, most notably the North African region. The daily intake of fresh fruit and vegetables in adequate quantities equivalent to 400500 grams per day is recommended to reduce the risk of coronary heart disease, stroke and high blood pressure. This has been thwarted by a Western-style diet prevailing in developing countries.
For centuries, communicable diseases were the main causes of death around the world. Life expectancy was often limited by uncontrolled epidemics. After the second World War, with medical research achievements resulting in vaccinations, antibiotics and improvement of life conditions, noncommunicable diseases became a problem in industrialized countries. Heart disease, cancer, diabetes, chronic pulmonary and mental diseases became a real burden for health systems in developed countries.
By the dawn of the third millennium, NCDs appeared to sweep across the entire globe, with an increasing trend in developing countries. Efficient preventive strategies are needed in order to overcome the specific problems of each country. The most used method is the approach that measures the global burden of NCDs in terms of disability adjusted life years (DALYs) which is a combination of years of life lost (YLL) through premature death, and years lived with disability (YLD).
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