At the direction of His Excellency the Minister of Health, Dr. Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Rabeeah, a national survey to collect information of non-communicable diseases throughout the Kingdom has been launched on 25/5/1434H (corresponding to 6/4/2013).
The Director General of the Combat of Hereditary and Chronic Diseases, Dr. Mohamed al-Saeedi, has revealed that it has been agreed with the Statistics Department, pertinent to the Ministry of Economics and Planning, to determine a sample representing all segments of the Saudi society. Accordingly, the sample represented by the survey has been agreed to comprise 14.182 participants, distributed on the Kingdom's regions according to their population density. The survey is to be carried out by paying visits to houses by the members of the health team, and selecting a random sample from the adult residents of the house.
Dr. al-Rabeeah added, “The National Survey of Health Information aims to attain five types of information: spread of the risk factors triggering non-communicable diseases of the Saudi community, providing updated information about the risk factors triggering non-communicable diseases, with the aim to setting proper health plans, and determining the future health requirements for treatment of such diseases. It also seeks to provide updated national information about the spread of non-communicable diseases, and determine the groups vulnerable to them. That's to be added to establishing a database that that will provide a comparison between the risk factors in the present and the future, and identifying the burden of morbidity of non-communicable diseases.”
He pointed out that 375 MOH scholars and supervisors from all the Kingdom's regions and provinces have participated in the National Survey of Health Information. Accomplishment of the task is deemed to be a record level, as the response rate has mounted to around 83%. Also, the number of samples that were accumulated has reached over 11.000. Laboratory tests and examinations have been conducted at laboratory of King Fahad Medical City (KFMC) in Riyadh, after the samples have been gathered peripherally from provinces. Laboratory tests have been centered on the examination of Vitamin D, hemoglobin A 1C (HBA1C), and blood lipids.