DUBAI: Qatar journalism students have launched a new website in an effort to tackle the alarmingly high rate of obesity in the Gulf. The website aims at spreading awareness and assisting those in their effort to prevent a massive epidemic from spreading even further. The site, Qatarsweetepidemic.org, was launched by journalism students at Northwestern University in Qatar to push information forward on diabetes and obesity in the Gulf country. According to Qatar's 2011-2016 National Health Strategy, 71 percent of Qatar's resident population, which includes both Qataris and expatriates, are overweight and 32 percent are obese or morbidly obese. With a mix of video documentary, investigative articles, audio podcasts and visual stories, the students' site confronts visitors with the startling figures on obesity and diabetes in Qatar and invites them to examine the societal factors that may be contributing to the rise of these two deadly medical conditions across the Gulf. “Qatar has the sixth-highest rate of obesity in the world, and in five years between 70 to 75 percent of the [Qatari] population will be obese,” Dr. Ellen Wartella, a professor of communication studies at the university, said. Obesity also increases the likelihood of a person contracting type-2 diabetes, a disease that the World Health Organization has termed a worldwide “slow-motion catastrophe.” The International Diabetes Federation reports that 20.2 percent of the adult population in Qatar suffers from type-2 diabetes, whereas only about 8.5 percent of the adult population worldwide is diabetic. “Diabetes is a dangerous disease. If I do not pay attention, it will cause blindness or problems with my liver, heart or even result in death,” Abdullah Al Kaabi, a Qatari student living with diabetes, said in testimony featured on the site. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/J8P2J Tags: Northwestern, Obesity, Qatar, Website Section: Health, Latest News, Media, Qatar
