A national study revealed high blood pressure and high levels of cholesterol between emirate, which creates a “emergency “public health” for heart disease. The initial results of the ‘Healthy Future Study in United Arab Emirates’ (UAEHFS) has established health concerns in a young population.
The research, led by University of New York on Abu Dhabistudied about 15,000 Emiratis to better understand the risk factor in diseases such as diabetesTHE obesity and hearts.
The average age of the population is only 25 years, but more than one third in people with high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels, said UAEHFS lead researcher Dr. Raghib Aliof the study results gathered so far.
“So this is a public health emergency,” he stressed, adding that the rates of diseases the heart can do increases if these problems are not addressed. “We also saw a relatively high number of smoking not especially among men, but also among men women”.
The doctor revealed that it took “many years to get everything permissions and building trust” from regulators to participants and others involved in the study, which was launched in 2016. “That’s why it took so long to recruit these 15,000 people, but the real value of the study will come in the next phase,” he said. The next phase of the study, which will last decades, will involve re-examining the volunteers who were analyzed several years ago and observing. how it changed your health.
Studies like this, which look at the same individuals repeatedly over time, are known as longitudinal or longitudinal studies. groups and became useful for IDENTIFYING risks associated with everything from poor nutrition even smoking.
When reassessed, a proportion of participants may have diabetes, heart disease or other conditions, or even deadand by looking at disease patterns, researchers can isolate the risk factors.
The samples were taken from the study participants blood and other measurements to understand your health. A few years ago, the study began to be conducted genetic analysis of the participants. It completely sequences the genetic material of some individuals, a process called gene sequencing. genome complete. It may be useful to identify the causes genetic which predisposes individuals to conditions individual.
A lot has been collected DATA and many scientific papers have been published about the findings, experts say.
“Although very important, important longitudinal studies are usually conducted in large populations Caucasian”said the Associate Director and Senior Research Scientist at the Public Health Research Center at New York University in Abu Dhabi, Dr. Abdishakur Abdulle.
The risk factors identified may be specific to ancestral populations. European, while risks found only in Emiratis or Africans tend to be overlooked. Arabs. “Here, for the first time, data from Arab-bedouins can contribute to world literature,” said Abdulle, who is co-principal investigator at UAEHFS.
Many health risk factors have been identified, such as lack of physical activity besity, poor diet, smoking and consumption too much alcohol. This is, Abdulle said, “common knowledge” and “not what we are looking for”, we are instead focusing on risks specific to UAE locals. “What other things they can or irreversible?
“An example is vitamin D Although we have abundant sunlight, but our communities are severely deficient in vitamin D. No one knows why.” He added that the Emirati population has experienced an outbreak of diseases graves earlier than that observed in many other societies.
Again, it is unclear why this is so. “Data from a cohort study like the UAEHFS can prove useful as COME in the medicine of accuracy, where treatments are more tailored to the individual, for example because of a person’s genetic makeup, Abdulle said.
