His Excellency the Deputy Minister of Health for Public Health, Dr. AbdulAziz bin Saeed, will launch tomorrow (Friday), 13th October, 2015, the events of the World Diabetes Day 2015, under the theme "Healthy Living and Diabetes". The events are organized by the National Center for Diabetes Control at Sahara Mall, in Riyadh.
The Director General of Public Relations, Media and International Relations and Spokesman of the Ministry of Health (MOH), Mr. Faisal bin Saeed Al-Zahrani, said that MOH is keen to celebrate the World Diabetes Day, which is observed annually on November 14th, with the aim of raising health awareness for diabetics or anyone at risk of diabetes, and providing the best health awareness and education services possible.
"The World Diabetes Day aims to prevent diabetes or at least hold back its onset through healthy diet, regular exercise, and maintaining normal body weight," Al-Zahrani said.
It is noteworthy that the global incidence of diabetes in 2014 was estimated at about 9% among adults aged 18+ years. In 2012, diabetes was the direct cause of about 1.5 million deaths; more than 80% of diabetes-related deaths occur in low and middle-income countries.
The World Health Organization (WHO) expects that diabetes will be the seventh leading cause of death in 2030. Healthy diet, regular physical activity, maintaining normal body weight, and tobacco use cessation are considered effective in preventing or delaying the onset of type2 diabetes.
According to the statistics reported in the Saudi Health Information Survey Handbook 2013, diabetes prevalence is estimated to be 13.4%: 14.8% among men, and 11.7% among women. Diabetes rates increase with aging. The incidence rate ranges between 7.8% in persons aged 25-34 years, and 50.4% in persons aged 65+ years.
The study showed that the incidence of pre-diabetes among males was 17% (1.29 million), compared to 15.5% among females (1.1 million). And the total number of Saudi men with diabetes is 1.1 million, of whom 546,000 are on diabetes medication, and 275,000 have no control over their disease. It added that there are 775,000 females with diabetes, of whom 356,000 are on diabetes medication and 196,000 with uncontrolled diabetes.