The Ministry of Health (MOH) announced that it will begin next Sunday implementation of the largest health survey in the history of the Kingdom, which includes more than 50,000 families. By this survey the MOH seeks to assess the health status of the population and pinpoint risk factors, such as lack of exercise and smoking and others, in addition to assessing the health ability to respond to aspirations and needs of the population, and the extent of covering health services and programs, as well as health expenditure at the family level, in line with the Kingdom Vision 2030 and National Transformation Program.
In a previous statement the MOH said that the survey aims to provide reliable data about the health status of the population in order to be familiar with the heath indicators of the community and health problems and developing appropriate solutions for them and ensure provision of highly reliable and internationally comparable information about the health status in the Kingdom. It also aims to create a base of data and evidence to assess performance of the health system and its ability to achieve designed objectives and provide the decision-makers with the required information to deal with the policies, strategies and programs, when necessary.
It is to be noted that the survey is expected to include 250,000 peoples of different age groups, from birth until old ages, with the participation of 571 health centers and 9,000 health practitioners and administrators, including geographical regions and population diversity of the Kingdom. The survey will be implemented in all regions of the Kingdom (20 regions and provinces) and lasts for six months during which field visits and laboratory examinations will be conducted to detect diabetes, blood pressure and fats ratio and weight and height measures, in order to identify BMI and related obesity and overweight, for a selected sample of 25,000 family members.
It is worth mentioning that the work mechanism has been checked by local and international experts, including the World Health Organization (WHO) and General Authority for Statistics.