WHO delegation travels to Qatar to complete preparations for launching the STEPwise survey

WHO delegation travels to Qatar to complete preparations for launching the STEPwise survey

The World Health Organization (WHO) mission consisting of members from WHO-EMRO office and WHO-HQ visited Qatar to provide overall guidance on the planning and implementation of STEPwise survey, finalization of data collection tools and also to train Master trainers for data collection trainings.

The Ministry of Public Health, Qatar is in preparation of implementation of the National STEPwise Survey, for chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and risk factors of non-communicable diseases. The STEPs is a standardized survey developed by WHO and carried out in collaboration with Planning & Statistics Authority (PSA) and in cooperation with Primary Health Care(PHCC) and Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC).

Technical support for the implementation of STEPS is provided by WHO headquarters, regional and country offices, including STEPS training workshops delivered at different stages of the surveillance process: planning and training, data collection, data analysis, and reporting, as well as data utilization.
The survey in Qatar is second cycle of STEPwise surveys, as a follow up for the 2012 survey, to provide a database on chronic non-communicable diseases and risk factors such as tobacco use, lack of physical activity, unhealthy nutrition, obesity, hypertension, increased blood glucose and increased blood fat.

The survey will be carried out by visiting more than 8,500 homes of Qatari nationals and non-Qatari residents after a random sample is selected from household lists, based on Population census, 2020. The participants of the survey will be in age group between 15 and 69 Years, randomly selected from these selected households.

Dr. Kholoud Ateeq Al Motawaa, Head of NCD department at MOPH and National Team lead for STEPwise survey explained that this survey is important because it highlights the health needs related to NCDs in the country. The results of this survey will be used to assist the Ministry of Public Health develop public health programs that target efforts to lower the risk factors that lead to NCDs.

In a meeting with WHO mission, Nasser Saleh Al Mahdi, Director of Department of Censuses, Surveys, and Statistical Methods, PSA, pointed out the importance of cooperation between different government institutions in the fields of health research.

Nasser also said that the provision of most updated and statistical accurate data for NCDs and its risk factors is a national task, the findings of which will help in developing health services to the community, as the provision of comprehensive data on these diseases and the risk factors associated with them, will be positively reflected in reducing the rates of non-communicable diseases and deaths resulting from them in the State of Qatar.

Dr. Heba Fouad; Regional Surveillance Officer, Department of UHC/Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office, World Health Organization , drew attention to the increasing rates of morbidity and mortality due to NCDs and their associated risk factors globally and in Qatar. During meetings with MoPH and PSA, she stated that active involvement of all sectors and an integrated governmental approach is the key to success for this survey. WHO mission also stressed that implementing STEPwise survey in line with the validated protocol and data collection tools is an integral part that ensures quality of data collected and also global comparison of country data with other countries.

Source: QNA