ABU DHABI, 23 August 2007 — The “Diabetes.Knowledge.Action” public health awareness campaign has been quick to respond to recent figures published by the capital’s Corniche Hospital on diabetes during pregnancy by moving the roving diabetes screening booth to the hospital.
The hospital’s research has revealed that four out of every 100 mothers who participated in the study developed gestational diabetes. This is in the upper bracket of global figures that suggest between two and five percent of pregnant women develop diabetes during their term.
Dr. Bashir Salih, chief of Service Obstetric Medicine at Corniche Hospital, observed that with the UAE populations’ tendency to diabetes, placed second highest worldwide at 19.5 percent, the high show of gestational diabetes is not surprising.
“Mothers in the UAE are proven to be at high risk of gestational diabetes but this risk can be greatly reduced by adopting a healthy lifestyle — both exercise and diet — before pregnancy.
