GCC-wide 'Your Health Matters' campaign kicks off with support from the WHO, Gulf Heart Association and Emirates Cardiac Society

In association with the World Health Organization, the Gulf Heart Association and the Emirates Cardiac Society, Sanofi-aventis, one of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies, announced the launch of 'Your Health Matters', a GCC wide public health awareness campaign against diabetes, abdominal obesity and associated cardiometabolic risk factors at a press conference held at the Fairmont Hotel in Dubai, today.

Key regional speakers participated in the 'Your Health Matters' press conference including: Dr. Oussama Al Khatib (Regional advisor for Non-communicable Diseases WHO-EMR (Egypt)), Dr. Ghaida Kaddaha, Consultant Diabetologist - Rashid Hospital. The conference was chaired by Prof. Dr. Najib Al Khaja, Head of Cardiology & Cardiothorathic surgery, Dubai Hospital, and Head of the Emirates Cardiac Society, member of the Gulf Heart Association, Deputy Dean of Dubai Medical College, and Chairman of the Sheikh Hamdan Scientific Award.

"In recent years, lifestyle related diseases have emerged as serious health problems that affect millions in the Pan-Arab region", said Dr. Khatib. "If left untreated, more often than not, these diseases can result in cardiovascular disease. In this respect, physicians have a greater responsibility to educate their patients about the most effective ways to combat cardiometabolic risks and bring them under control."

The 'Your Health Matters' campaign will kick off on the 3rd of May with the first session of the Continuous Medical Education activity where local doctors from across the GCC region will be educated about "Cardiometabolic risks" via a live transmission from Harvard University. This session will form the first of a number of sessions scheduled for 2007.

'Your Health Matters' will initiate the launch of a series of awareness and testing campaigns at major malls where doctors and nurses from UAE will offer free medical check-ups for the public during certain notified weekends. The public will be tested for high blood pressure, elevated blood glucose, increased waist circumference and unhealthy levels of cholesterol and will be educated about the relationship between the mentioned risk factors and cardiometabolic diseases.

The 1st screening wave will take place at Deira City Centre in Dubai during the weekend of 1st and 2nd June 2007 and the Abu Dhabi Marina Mall during the weekend of 8th and 9th June 2007. More screening waves have been scheduled for the following months. These will witness the launch of 'Your Health Matters' at malls across the Gulf region.

What is abdominal obesity?
Obesity is defined as excessive body weight and is traditionally assessed by using an indirect measure of body fat, the Body Mass Index (BMI). The World Health Organization (WHO) defines 'overweight' as a BMI of over 25 and obesity as BMI over 30.

Abdominally obese people are defined as those who have an increased waist circumference. Current guidelines indicate a threshold of 102cm (40 inches) for men and 88 cm (35 inches) for women (NCEP ATP III).1

Recent epidemiological surveys have shown that abdominal obesity is a better predictor of cardiovascular disease than body weight or BMI. The reason is that BMI does not take into account the distribution of body fat. This is important because people with abdominal obesity (as measured by waist circumference) can be characterized by a whole cluster of metabolic complications, increasing the risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease (CVD).

Abdominal obesity is associated with multiple cardiometabolic risk (CMR) factors including dyslipidaemia, insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, inflammation and thrombosis - all factors leading to cardiovascular disease. Intra-abdominal adiposity (IAA) is thought to be responsible for the health threat posed by abdominal obesity.

What is the prevalence of abdominal obesity?
Abdominal obesity has reached epidemic proportions and its prevalence is growing worldwide. A recent study entitled 'National Cross-Sectional Study on Coronary Artery Disease Risk Factors in Saudi Arabia' (CADIS Study) undertaken in the year 2000 by the WHO indicates that, in adults aged 30 years and over, the prevalence of obesity averages 35.6 percent, with a higher rate in women (44 percent) than in men (26.4 percent).

Based on the results of IDEA (International Day for Evaluation of Abdominal obesity - Data on file), the overall prevalence of obesity in UAE was observed to be up to 37%, which reached up to 60% in females. According to Dr. Oussama Al Khatib, (Regional advisor for Non-communicable Diseases WHO-EMR (Egypt)) the diabetes prevalence in UAE is more than 20%.

What is Cardiometabolic risk?
Cardiometabolic risk describes a cluster of risk factors, which increase a person's chance of developing cardiovascular disease including heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. It is characterized by: abdominal obesity, dyslipidaemia (increased triglycerides, decreased HDL), hypertension, elevated insulin and /or glucose intolerance. Men and women with metabolic syndrome are at a high risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.

Metabolic syndrome is said to be present if at least three of the following diagnostic criteria are met:
• Waist circumference (WC) of 102 cm (40 inches) or more for men, and 88 cm (35 inches) or more for women
• Blood pressure of 130/8mmHg or higher (or treatment by antihypertensive agents)
• Triglyceride level above 150mg/dl (1.7mmol/l)
• HDL level less than 40mg/dl (1.03mmol/l) in men or under 50mg/dl (1.28mmol/l) in women
• Fasting blood glucose (sugar) level greater than 110mg/dl (6.1mmol/l) (or treatment for diabetes)(NCEP ATP III)

Explaining the reasons for the initiation of 'Your Health Matters', Dr. Hisham Mahmoud, Medical Director, Sanofi-aventis, said: "We are working towards raising awareness of the lifestyle diseases affecting residents in the Arab world nowadays. While many Arab countries have emerged as flourishing business and tourist destinations, modern lifestyles have had an adverse effect on the health of its residents, this being reflected in the increase in incidence of diseases such as diabetes, cardio-vascular diseases, obesity and hypertension."