The rate of spread of non-communicable diseases in Kuwait is high and physical inactivity is a leading risk factor that causes such diseases, Assistant Undersecretary of the Ministry of Health for Private Services Dr. Mohammad Al-Khashti said on Monday. Speaking at a workshop on "toward a more active Kuwait," organized by Health Promotion Department in cooperation with World Health Organization (WHO), Al-Khashti said the workshop aims at raising awareness toward increasing physical activity in society.
He noted that physical inactivity causes six percent of all deaths across the globe. It is only outstripped by high blood pressure (13 percent) and tobacco use (nine percent) and carries the same level of risk as high blood glucose (six percent).
He said physical inactivity is the main cause of 25 percent of breast and colon cancers, 27 percent of diabetes and 30 percent of heart diseases.
Statistics conducted by Health Promotion Department at schools in 2011 showed that obesity reached 22 percent and the weight of students who were between 13-15 years increased by 50 percent, Al-Khashti pointed out.
He stressed the necessity of launching an initiative aimed at encouraging physical activity in society.
He noted that WHO's member states have agreed to decrease the rates of physical inactivity by ten percent by 2025, stressing that this move comes in the framework of a global plan for the prevention of non-communicable diseases.
In a press statement on the sidelined of the workshop, Dr. Abeer Al-Bahwa, director of Health Promotion Department, said that the event lasts for three days and the department will announce the results of research (of obstacles of physical activity of adults in Kuwait) at the workshop.
She noted that the event sheds light on physical inactivity in Kuwait as it is a leading risk factor that causes non-communicable diseases in Kuwait and across the globe.
Source: KUNA