RIYADH, Oct 1: Obesity has become a major health problem in the Gulf due to a rapid transformation in lifestyle. According to a study presented in Doha, Qatar, 70 per cent of women and 50 per cent of men living in Gulf states are overweight or obese.

“Obesity occurs much more often in women in Gulf states where it affects 50 to 70 per cent of married women and 30 to 50 per cent of married men,” said a study presented by Qatari researcher Issam Abd Rabbu at the ‘Facts About Obesity’ seminar.

This is definitely understandable. Although men also prefer to enjoy a sedentary lifestyle here, participation of women in physical activity is much lower.

Physical education in girls’ schools is almost non-existent in Saudi society. In other Gulf countries although the situation may be slightly better, there is a definite inclination towards discouraging women from taking part in physical activity.

Obesity is also starting to strain the social net, with diseases such as diabetes, blood pressure and accompanying diseases already putting pressure on health budgets, which in most of the states is still being provided by the state to nationals free of charge.

But sustaining this pressure for long with an obese population, may be problematic in future, analysts here believe.

Mr Rabbu said the problem was also taking a toll on children, ‘affecting five to 10 per cent of pre-school children, 10 to 15 per cent of primary school children and 20 to 40 per cent for secondary school children’.

These obesity rates are ‘much higher than in developed countries’, he said in his study, called ‘Obesity: The illness of the century’.

He blamed obesity among Gulf women on ‘repeated pregnancies without a reasonable interval’ of time.

Mr Rabbu said statistics in his study covered people suffering from being ‘overweight, obese, excessively obese and morbidly obese’.