Obesity is the top health concern for Arab Youth, survey reveals

Decades of reliance on foreign health care has left many young Arabs sceptical about the level of care they receive in their home country, the report said.

Twenty-six per cent of respondents felt obesity was a major health issue, compared with 12 per cent last year. Gabriela Maj / Bloomberg News

ABU DHABI // Obesity is the top health concern among Arab youth, but only 34 per cent feel health care in their country has improved, a survey has found.

“While concern about health issues is on the increase, decades of reliance on foreign health care has left many young Arabs sceptical about the level of health care they receive in their home country,” the report said.

Fifty-two per cent of the 3,500 people aged 18 to 24 polled in the Arab Youth Survey 2014 said they felt health care in their country had stayed the same, while 14 per cent believed it had worsened – with almost no difference between respondents from GCC and non-GCC countries.

In the UAE, when asked to rate the quality of medical care, 36 per cent of respondents said “excellent”, 23 per cent said “good”, 22 per cent said “bad” and 19 per cent said “very bad”. Similarly, 32 per cent thought health care had improved in the last year, while 55 per cent said it stayed the same and 13 per cent said it had got worse.

The young appear more concerned about health issues this year than last. Twenty per cent said they were not concerned about health issues, compared with 28 per cent last year.

The percentage of those concerned about obesity more than doubled, from 12 per cent to 26 per cent.

Dr Ali Mokdad, director of Middle Eastern Initiatives and global health professor at the University of Washington in the United States, welcomed the survey’s findings.

“It is very encouraging that the Arab youth are seeing health as a priority,” he said.

But young people appear to have relatively low confidence in governments’ abilities to handle health problems, compared with other issues.

Half of respondents expressed confidence in medical care, while 31 per cent said they felt “not very confident” and 18 per cent said they felt “not at all” confident. Health ranked behind only wealth creation, climate change and scarcity of resources in terms of lack of confidence, out of 14 issues.

Governments need to understand that obesity and chronic diseases are not just the responsibility of the ministry of health, said Dr Mokdad, an expert on Middle East health care.

Multiple parties, including ministries of education, planning and agriculture, as well as police, must play their roles, he said. “If youth in a country decide to live healthily and reduce his or her weight, the environment around them has to support them to do so.”

Governments must “move away from a curative system to a public health system where prevention is a main objective”, he said.

Amer Al Kindi, a lecturer in public health at Zayed University, said his class of female Emirati students were “well aware” of health challenges that their generation faced.

“While most of my students have limited background on public policy and health systems, some never seize an opportunity to voice their opinions on what should be done by the policymakers and by society to fix a public health issue, be it food-industry regulation or improving walkability in Emirati neighbourhoods,” he said.

Mr Al Kindi said he could see in them “true enthusiasm, an eagerness to learn and grow and a dedication to serve their society and nation”.

He said: “Their country is giving them so much and is, in return, in great need for their energy and hard work.”

He hoped to see youth use that enthusiasm to follow their own paths, rather than “one drawn by their parents or anyone else”.

Mr Al Kindi said: “Success is not only about achieving, but also giving back.”

Dr Mokdad called for governments to change the way they communicated with youth, and utilise technology.

“We have to tailor a health message to them. We have to involve them in the discussion, we have to involve them in finding a solution,” he said.

“I would like to call for youth to be invited to the table and made to actively participate in the debate and message.”

ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller, a communications firm, released the survey on Monday. Polling was carried out by Penn Schoen Berland.