The Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP) reaffirmed its commitment to strengthening early prevention on World Diabetes Day, observed annually on November 14, under this year\u2019s theme, \u201cAct Early on Diabetes,\u201d through early detection, proactive intervention, and continuity of care to improve community health and quality of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His Excellency Ahmed bin Ali Al Sayegh, Minister of Health and Prevention, stated that, under the guidance of the UAE\u2019s wise leadership, the country continues to strengthen its focus on proactive prevention rather than treating disease after it develops, in line with its commitment to improving health outcomes and reducing the burden of chronic diseases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Diabetes Risk Indicators His Excellency added: \u201cHowever, this future is not inevitable. Strengthening prevention over the next 15 years could enable us to save approximately 32,000 lives, add around 221,000 years of healthy life to our population, and avoid an estimated AED 20 billion in economic losses by encouraging physical activity, improving care for people living with diabetes, and adopting policies that make healthier choices easier.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Strengthening Prevention and Early Screening He encouraged members of the community to adopt a health-conscious approach centered on understanding risk factors and taking the initiative to undergo early and regular screening, emphasizing that diabetes prevention begins before symptoms appear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These efforts form part of the updated National Diabetes and Obesity Control Plan 2026\u20132030, which focuses on prevention, early detection, and continuity of care, in alignment with the objectives of the \u201cWe the UAE 2031\u201d vision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Ministry is also preparing to make Type 1 diabetes a key priority by strengthening awareness of its symptoms and warning signs and expanding early screening for children at higher risk, to reduce delayed diagnosis and associated complications. The National Committee for Combating Diabetes and Obesity, chaired by H.E. Dr. Hussein Al Rand, Assistant Undersecretary for the Public Health Sector, has approved a package of priority initiatives for 2026 and 2027. These include follow-up care for women who have experienced gestational diabetes, the development of healthy lifestyle clinics, and early detection of metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease among individuals living with diabetes, prediabetes, and obesity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP) reaffirmed its commitment to strengthening early prevention on World Diabetes Day, observed annually on November 14, under this year\u2019s theme, \u201cAct Early on Diabetes,\u201d through early detection, proactive intervention, and continuity of care to improve community health and quality of life. His Excellency Ahmed bin Ali Al Sayegh, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":68042,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-health","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68041"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68041\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68043,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68041\/revisions\/68043"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/strong>His Excellency explained that approximately 1.3 million adults in the UAE are living with diabetes, representing one in five adults, while diabetes costs the national economy approximately AED 9 billion annually. If current trends continue, the International Diabetes Federation projects that the number of people living with diabetes in the UAE could rise to approximately 1.9 million by 2050.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/strong>His Excellency highlighted the UAE\u2019s leading models in comprehensive preventive health screening, particularly Abu Dhabi\u2019s \u201cIFHAS\u201d program and the \u201cEtmenan\u201d program provided by Emirates Health Services. He explained that efforts are underway to expand and standardize preventive screening at the federal level, with the longer-term objective of making screening mandatory by linking it to health insurance requirements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n