Health Promotion and Obesity in the Arab Gulf States: Challenges and Good Practices

This debate paper focuses on available strategies, policies, and challenges of health promotion for combating obesity in the Arab Gulf states (Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, and Qatar). The paper focuses on the abovementioned countries due to their similarity on many aspects and because of the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of obesity 2019-01, Vol.2019 (2019), p.1-6
Main Authors: Samara, Anastasia, Aro, Arja R., Andersen, Pernille Tanggaard
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Advertising campaigns
Diabetes
Eating behavior
Females
Food
Health care policy
Health education
Health promotion
Nutrition
Obesity
Physical fitness
Population
Primary care
Primary health care
Public health
Review
Schools
Type 2 diabetes
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Summary:This debate paper focuses on available strategies, policies, and challenges of health promotion for combating obesity in the Arab Gulf states (Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, and Qatar). The paper focuses on the abovementioned countries due to their similarity on many aspects and because of their alarming obesity rates that are on the rise and keep increasing. The paper argues that there are significant efforts to be made in sectors such as policies, intersectoral work, primary healthcare, health promotion strategies development, and qualified personnel for health promotion and health education. Among the six states, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, and to a degree Oman have shown some development with regard to the implementation and evaluation of obesity-related health promotion policies, and thus other Arab Gulf countries could be inspired by existing good practices and move from good intentions to using their available wealth to invest in the implementation and evaluation of published policies and strategies. All Arab Gulf countries are in need of more qualified personnel and the development of infrastructure that can help tackle the growing obesity challenge that such countries are experiencing.
ISSN:2090-0708
2090-0716
DOI:10.1155/2019/4756260