Dubai: A nationwide survey of a wide spectrum of both Emirati and expatriate schoolchildren has both good news and bad news.
The good news is that only a small percentage (15.5 per cent) are obese despite drinking more than two cans of soft drinks per day and eating fast food meals three times or more per week.
The bad news is that 39.2 per cent are overweight.
"This is very good. We were expecting more than that," said Dr Mahmoud Fikri, Executive Director for Health Policies, speaking about the obesity rate. He said overweight is easily controllable than obesity.
The other good news is that a large number of schoolchildren were aware of sexually transmitted diseases as HIV/Aids and a large percentage had discussed it with their parents. "It shows a positive response of the community to our programme," said Dr Fikri. "About 85 per cent [of the schoolchildren] were aware how Aids is transmitted," he said.
The scientific survey was conducted last year in 52 private and government schools and 2,581 students aged between 13 to 15 years of age were given the specially prepared questionnaire. The survey was conducted with the help of World Health Organisation, Unicef, International Federation for Combating Aids and the American Centres for Disease Control.
Mayada Wahsh, programme officer for Unicef in the Gulf, told Gulf News that the Global School Health Survey plays a big role in the interventions planned.
National strategy
She said a meeting will be held next week in Abu Dhabi to formulate a national strategy. She said the results showed a consistency with all other Gulf countries.
Fikri said the survey was done in seven countries in the region and this was the second time the UAE was taking part in the global survey which was conducted in 15 countries.
"It gives an insight to the risk factors that lead to non-communicable diseases," he said. The health official said this age group was important to send the message home on the hazards of smoking.
A large percentage (78 per cent) of smokers said they first smoked when they were 14 years old.
This age was the same for both girls and boys. And the smokers said their parents were smokers.
Nasser, a 17-year old, said smoking among students was not common. "We had just one student last year who smoked. But he said at least one out of four drank "lots" of soft drinks.
The survey showed that a large percentage (39 per cent) feel sad, "as if there is no hope", at least for two consecutive weeks. About 16.7 per cent felt anxiety which prevented from having a good night's sleep.
- 52 schools surveyed in the UAE
- 78% smoked for the first time at the age of 14
- 39% of schoolchildren are overweight
- 21% had fast food three times or more a day
