Dubai Health Authority and DecideTM embark on a drive to educate organisations in UAE on Diabetes Awareness

Programme begins with blood sugar screenings at Fonterra Middle East, a global leader in dairy nutrition

Dubai, UAE, July 18th, 2013: The Clinical Nutrition Department of Dubai Health Authority (DHA), together with DecideTM Diabetes Programme, supported by its partners Lifescan, Merck Serono and MPC, has embarked on a drive to educate the organisations in the UAE with regard to Diabetes prevention and management. The drive continues with screening programmes at Fonterra Middle East, a global leader in diary nutrition. During this event DHA and DecideTM also raised awareness on diabetes and obesity a main cause behind this condition. They conducted blood sugar screenings, checked BMI (Body Mass Index) and provided dietary tips to employees.  The goal of such diabetes screening awareness campaigns is to identify individuals that could be at high risk for developing Type 2 diabetes.

Kamal Gupta, Managing Director, Fonterra Brands, Middle East Africa and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), said: “Fonterra as a company is committed to nutrition and good health, here in the region and internationally. As an employer, we are also committed to ensuring the wellbeing of those who work with us. That is why we would like to thank our friends at DHA and Decide for giving us this opportunity to provide our staff with health screenings and advice on how to adopt or maintain a healthy lifestyle. This is a truly worthwhile initiative which I believe provides real benefits for those taking part, and I would encourage other companies to get involved.”
 
Decide™ not only seeks to educate people affected by diabetes, but is also involved in helping family members understand how they can better support those who live with the condition. This is attained through promoting healthy eating habits, encouraging physical exercise, outside clinic compliance to medical advice, overall management and monitoring of the various areas of the body that can be impacted by diabetes.

Dr. Wafaa Helmi Ayesh, Director of Clinical Nutrition Department, Dubai Health Authority (DHA) stated that, “DHA and DecideTM have been conducting these screenings across the UAE since the last couple of years and we wanted to address the corporates and educate them about healthy living. During these events we gauge the Body Mass Index (BMI) and this also gives the employees another reason to keep their body weight under check. We, at DHA, are committed to the well-being of the organisations in the UAE and we aim to share our wealth of experience and knowledge through these events to people in UAE for them to lead a healthy, happy and profitable life”.

“Employees are the life-blood of any organisation and both DHA and DecideTM wanted to reach out to the corporates and educate them about having healthy employees are important for the health of any organisation. Employees will be less prone to diabetes and other health-related diseases when they are given the right information on the benefits of healthy living, which mainly includes proper nutrition and an active lifestyle. Even before reaching the stage of getting diabetes, it can be prevented by self discipline such as adopting a healthy lifestyle, especially watching how much you eat and exercising every day to help prevent diabetes and other lifestyle related conditions. This is what we wanted to achieve at Fonterra Middle East and we would like to thank them for understanding our objectives and providing us with an opportunity to educate their employees,” said Wadad Aboul Khoudoud, Decide Diabetes Programme Director.
 
DHA and DecideTM have conducted around 6000 blood sugar screening activities at various establishments such as hospitals, organizations, sport clubs and shopping malls in the UAE since September 2011 to raise awareness on diabetes prevention and management.