Tribune News Network
Doha
The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH), in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MoEHE), Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) and Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC), recently organised two workshops on the ‘WHO Growth Chart Programme for School Students in Qatar aged 5-19 years’, in the presence of about 60 participants from the new nurses in schools and programme supervisors from the MoPH and the PHCC.
Dr Salah Al Yafei, acting director of the Health Promotion Department at the MoPH, said: "The Ministry of Public Health has been implementing the growth plans programme in schools since the academic year 2014-2015, as part of the ministry’s attention and concern on children’s health.”
He added: "The aim of implementing the programme is to provide a database and build a surveillance and monitoring system for growth of the school students in the three school stages (primary, preparatory and secondary), as well as early detection of cases of developmental disorders that may be relatedto malnutrition represented by underweight, short stature and dwarfism on the one hand or overweight and obesity on the other hand, and referring these cases to their primary health care centres for follow-up and treatment.”
He also stressed that the implementation of the growth chart programme aims to reduce the burden of obesity and associated chronic diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, Type diabetes and some types of cancer. The programme comes in line with the Qatar National Vision 2030’saim to promote the health of the Qatari community members.
The application of the growth charts programme on school students, taking weight and height measurements, and calculating body mass index are the most important preventive and curative services that help in the early detection and diagnosis of malnutrition cases among school students.
These training sessions play a pivotal role in ensuring the effective implementation of the Growth Chart Programme, contributing to the overall well-being of students in Qatar.