60% OVERWEIGHT IN OMAN: - SHAME ON YOU OMANIS!!!

MUSCAT, Oct 22 – More than 60 per cent of Oman’s population is either overweight or obese, and the rate is on an ever-increasing mode, according to Sayyida Dr Noora bint Badr al Busaidiya, Head of National Centre for Diabetes and Endocrine and President of Omani Diabetes Association.

This alarming rate of overweight people is certainly contributing to the high incidence of diabetes.
“Latest studies reveal that the rate of diabetes in the country is 12.7 per cent, but from the results of the national screening programme of the Ministry of Health (MoH) in 2012, the pre-diabetic rate is 35 per cent, and this is one of the results of overweight and obesity in the country,” Dr Noora said on the sidelines of the commemoration of the International Obesity Day.

“Alarmingly, obesity among youngsters and adults is rising and it is the prime reason for diabetes. Studies have revealed that more than 50 per cent increase in diabetes has been recorded among the young population in the recent years.”
World Obesity Day was celebrated at the Omani Women’s Association under the auspices of Al Busaidiya, where Dr Fatma al Ra’aidhan, Director for Health Education and Awareness programmes at the MoH, and Dr Layla Husain Agha, Specialist and Trainer from Kuwait, also spoke.