Tribune News Network Doha
The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) is preparing to implement the National STEPwise Survey in Qatar, for chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and risk factors of non-communicable diseases. The STEPs is a standardised survey developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and carried out in collaboration with the Planning and Statistics Authority (PSA) and in cooperation with Primary Health Care (PHCC) and Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC).Technical support for the implementation of STEPs is provided by WHO headquarters, regional and country offices, including STEPs training workshops delivered at different stages of the surveillance process: planning and training, data collection, data analysis and reporting, as well as data utilisation.In this context, a WHO mission consisting of members from WHO-EMRO office and WHO headquarters visited Qatar recently to provide overall guidance on the planning and implementation of STEPwise survey, finalisation of data collection tools and also to train master trainers for data collection trainings.The survey in Qatar is second cycle of STEPwise surveys, as a follow up for the 2012 survey, to provide a database on chronic non-communicable diseases and risk factors such as tobacco use, lack of physical activity, unhealthy nutrition, obesity, hypertension, increased blood glucose and increased blood fat.The survey will be carried out by visiting more than 8,500 homes of Qatari nationals and non-Qatari residents after a random sample is selected from household lists, based on 2020 population census. The participants in the survey will be between 15 and 69 years age group, randomly selected from these households.Dr Heba Fouad, regional surveillance officer, Department of UHC/Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office, World Health Organization, drew attention to the increasing rates of morbidity and mortality due to NCDs and their associated risk factors globally and in Qatar. During meetings with MoPH and PSA, she stated that active involvement of all sectors and an integrated governmental approach is the key to success for this survey. The WHO mission also stressed that implementing STEPwise survey in line with the validated protocol and data collection tools is an integral part that ensures quality of data collected and also global comparison of country data with other countries. Dr Kholoud Ateeq Al Motawaa, head of NCD Department at MoPH and National Team lead for STEPwise survey, explained that the survey is important because it highlights the health needs related to NCDs in the country, adding that the results of this survey will be used to assist the Ministry of Public Health develop public health programmes that target efforts to lower the risk factors that lead to NCDs.In a meeting with WHO mission, Nasser Saleh Almahdi, director of Department of Censuses, Surveys and Statistical Methods at PSA, pointed outthe importance of cooperation between different government institutions in the fields of health research. He added that the provision of most updated and statistical accurate data for NCDs and its risk factors is a national task, the findings of which will help in developing health services to the community, as the provision of comprehensive data on these diseases and the risk factors associated with them will be positively reflected in reducing the rates of non-communicable diseases and deaths resulting from them in Qatar.
