JEDDAH, 10 May 2007 — Health Minister Hamad Al-Manie has said that a sample survey on family health that will begin on Saturday will help the ministry update its public health indices and draw up future health policies.
The Health Ministry said the survey, which will cover 10,900 families in all 13 regions of the Kingdom, would be carried out with the support of the World Health Organization and in coordination with the Executive Bureau of GCC Health Ministers.
This is the largest such survey ever conducted by the ministry, an official said, adding that surveyors would ask hundreds of questions.
The ministry has appointed 575 qualified officials, including doctors, nurses and researchers to carry out the 40-day survey. All attended a four-day training program at Al-Iman Hospital in Riyadh on how to conduct the survey including taking samples and conducting physical, mental and laboratory tests.
These officials will be divided into 147 groups, each composed of a doctor, a nurse, a coordinator, a supervisor and a primary health care assistant. They will visit families selected on a random basis, collect information, conduct interviews and fill forms. The meeting with a family may take from three to five hours.
“This is a qualitative change,” said Dr. Mansour Al-Hawassi, deputy health minister for executive affairs, about the survey, adding that it would help authorities gain accurate information about the health situation in the country. “It offers an ideal mechanism for collecting health-related information,” he added.
The Ministry of Health has already chosen the families from a sample received from the General Statistics Department at the Ministry of Economy and Planning.
“This survey will help estimate the mortality rate among different age groups and people who suffer from chronic diseases,” said Dr. Mohamed Ba-Sulaiman, general director of planning at the Ministry of Health and a consultant in family medicine. “It will also show the effects of health care in the Kingdom,” he added.
