The Ministry of Health is following up a national strategy for controlling and treating chronic diseases. It has included the chronic diseases care centers within the primary health care programs applied in MOH health centers.
The centers are undertaking their preventive, therapeutic and educational tasks through a set of unified efficient criteriae for diagnosing, treating, and following up chronic diseases. MOH, through its efforts in this regard, aims to reduce the morbidity, mortality, and disability rates resulting from chronic diseases. Effective measurement parameters have also been set for measuring the feedback and ensuring the quality and continuation of work for the benefit of the patients.
The Ministry of Health denotes hereby that the swift changes in life styles and nutrition patterns have caused spreading of some chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, heart diseases, obesity, and high rate of cholesterol in the blood.
The Ministry of Health would like to confirm that such diseases are highly monitored. Relative research units and specialized areas are encouraged to utilize their research studies, efforts, and resources for setting plans for containing and combating chronic diseases.
Studies have shown that more than 100 million people in the world are affected by chronic diseases. The figures are likely to increase due to prevalence of new life styles and nutrition patterns. It has been proved that diabetes is imposing an increasing health problem in both developing and advanced countries.
Hypertension is the most widely spreading cardiovascular disease. With prevalence rates ranging from 8 to 18% and a total number of 300 – 600 million affected people throughout the world, cardiovascular diseases are known to be responsible of 25% of deaths in the world.
Field studies in the Kingdom have also shown the spreading of chronic diseases. The prevalence rate of diabetes for example ranges between 14 and 16%, obesity between 23 and 30%, hypertension between 5 and 12%, and asthma among students between 10 and 17%.
The Ministry of Health is relying much on the outputs of the Saudi Gulf Conference on Chronic Diseases and the First Forum of Specialized Health Societies to be organized at the headquarters of the International Dhahran Shows Co. in Dhahran during the period from 30/01/1428H to 04/02/2007 under the auspices of the Minister of Health Dr. Hamad bin Abdullah Al-Manae. National experts in the field were invited to the conference for exchanging knowledge and gathering information on the best protective and therapeutic practices.