Introduction
:
Diabetes
is a widely prevalent disease allover the world where its prevalence
reached about 5% in the total world population.
This
percentage is increasing greatly in some of the countries especially
those that had an urbanization leap such as the Cooperative Council
States in the Gulf, where these countries have witnessed great
development and flourishment in all fields.
This is due to the changes that took place in the life style and
patterns of living which led to the appearance and the increased
rates of chronic diseases including diabetes. Diabetes is closely
related with the risk factors of obesity, physical inactivity
and increased consumption of high calories as well as to the genetic
factors which play an important role.
Statistics and early epidemiological studies in the Gulf states
have shown that diabetes is taking an epidemic form which made
of it a public health risk at the national level.
Thus, the prevalence of diabetes reached 25% in the Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia, Sultanate of Oman and the Kingdom of Bahrain. As
for the metabolic disorders of glucose (which is the potential
diabetes cases) it exceeded that percentage, which means that
the affected population or that will be affected with diabetes
is more the 20% which is a very high rate compared to other countries.
A preliminary report
issued by the Ministry of Health, Kuwait titled “Surveillance
of Risk Factors of Chronic Non-Communicable Diseases) showed that
the percentage is 16.7%.
On the other hand, Gulf Family Health Survey, in 1996, showed
that the prevalence rate of diabetes in Kuwait is 9.2% in the
population above 15 years of age.
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