Epidemiological health assessment in primary health care in the State of Qatar- 2019

Al-Kuwari, M. G.; Ahmad Al Abdulla, S.; Yousef Abdulla, M.; Haj Bakri, A.; Mustafa Mohammed, A.; Chettiyam Kandy, M.; Patterson, A.

Objectives: The Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) in Qatar conducted epidemiological health assessment to understand the burden of diseases impacting the PHCC registered population Design: This is a cross-sectional study design among all PHCC registered population between the 1st of September 2018 and the 31st of August 2019 Setting: Primary Health Care Corporation health centers Participants: The target population is all persons residing in Qatar aged (0-80) years and registered at the PHCC. Excluding patients with expired Qatar residence permit by the 31st of August Results: Obesity rates ranged between 37% and 35% among the total population registered with the lowest rate in the central region at 34.7%. Burden of type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and dyslipidemia was the highest among population of the Central region at 13.9%, 15.7% and 11.1%, respectively. Tobacco consumption among males ranged from 25.4 % to 27.8%, with the highest rate in the Northern region. 39.9% of females in the Northern region had BMI above 30 kg/m2. Exclusive breastfeeding at 6 months was significantly lower than that at 4 months across all regions. Children in the Northern region had the highest rate of overweight/obesity based on Z-scores. Western region population had the highest number of communicable diseases notifications especially Chicken pox at 94.6 per 10,000 children Conclusion: Understanding the patterns of disease in the local population will enable PHCC to provide a clear set of objectives to work towards meeting population health needs Keywords: NCDs, Breastfeeding, Primary Care, Communicable Diseases, Qatar