Dr. Muhammad Tanveer Alam and Dr. Shajitha Thekke Veettil.
Doha: Obesity is a worldwide epidemic and one of the risk factors for many diseases including heart disease, diabetes mellitus, kidney disease and cancer.
Reducing body weight is the first line of treatment in most of these diseases. Qatar Biobank annual report in 2022 reported that, more than 70% of the population in Qatar is either overweight or obese.
The high rates of bariatric surgery carried out in Qatar is also alarming, with almost 2,000 cases per year carried out at Hamad Medical Corporation. The healthcare cost of obesity and diabetes is very high.
Approximately QR2 billion are spent annually on the treatment of diabetes, and this is expected to rise to QR4.9 billion in the next 15 years.
To tackling the rising rates of obesity, the Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) provides dietetics services through trained dietitians. The service was initiated to support overweight and obese adults reduce their body mass index (BMI) through a dietetic program.
PHCC undertook a study to evaluate the effectiveness of PHCC’s dietetics services led by Dr. Muhammad Tanveer Alam, Consultant Family Physician from Airport Health Center. The study which is published in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine found PHCC’s program supports BMI reduction of up to 10% in overweight and obese subjects.
The study further reported that the median time for weight reduction was 3.2 years, with women showing earlier significant weight loss than men.
The patients with 3-5 number of visits had earlier significant weight reduction than those with ≤3 visits and >5 number of visits. Greater weight reduction was seen in those with chronic diseases and who had constant follow up visits in the dietetic clinic during the study period.
Dr. Muhammad Tanveer Alam said ‘The study results are encouraging and show significant improvement in the management of adult obesity with medical nutrition therapy through involvement and guidance in the community dietetic clinics.
Dr. Shajitha Thekke Veettil from PHCC’s department of clinical research and a member of the research team said ‘Given the effectiveness of PHCC’s dietetics program, it should be more widely considered as an operative strategy to prevent expensive diabetic and cardiovascular events, mainly in high-risk patients.
