Non-communicable diseases behind 72% of deaths in Oman

Muscat: The death toll in Oman due to Non-communicable diseases (NCDs), accounted for 72 per cent of deaths in Oman, according to a senior official of the health department.

The official was speaking at a workshop as part of the Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) Strategic Research Programme, a programme developed by the Ministry of Health in collaboration with The Research Council (TRC) on Wednesday at JW Marriott Hotel, under the patronage Dr Hilal bin Ali Al Sabti, Executive President of Oman Medical Specialty Board (OMSB).

The workshop introduced the main objectives of the NCD programme like providing evidence-based-up-to-date, extensive and reliable base-line data on major preventable NCDs and their behavioural and biological risk factors in Oman, and providing an approach and structure, for establishing an efficient surveillance system to collect data on the prevalence and known risk factors of NCDs, for planning, implementation and evaluation as well as preventative and curative interventions and doing research on NCDs and their risk factors.

The workshop opened with a welcoming statement by HE Dr Ali Al Hinai, Undersecretary for Planning Affairs at the Ministry of Health and Chairman of Steering Committee of NCD Strategic Research Programme.

He said 36 per cent of all deaths are due to cardiovascular diseases, with 11 per cent due to cancers, 8 per cent due to diabetes and 2 per cent due to chronic respiratory diseases, thus stressing the importance of taking the right actions to tackle this rising issue.


She discussed the goals, themes, action areas and process of submitting research proposals as part of the programme.

According to Dr Al Mawali, every 2 seconds someone aged 30 to 70 years dies prematurely from NCDs worldwide and that the death toll in Oman due to NCDs, which accounted for 72 per cent of all deaths in 2018, is higher than the global death toll (71 per cent in 2018).

The workshop also included presentations on “TRC’s Strategic Research Programmes” by Dr Salah Al Zadjali, Health Expert at TRC, and “Suggestions to get your proposal accepted for the NCD Strategic Research Programme” by Dr Khalid Al Rasadi, Director of Medical Research Centre (Sultan Qaboos University) and Member of the Steering Committee of NCD Strategic Research Programme; both of which discussed in detail how to utilise information in favour of producing high-quality research papers. Following the presentations, participants were involved in interactive group discussions and presentations about the main types of NCDs during the workshop.

Non-communicable diseases, also known as chronic diseases, tend to be of long duration and are the result of a combination of genetic, physiological, environmental and behavioural factors. Since NCDs are estimated to account for 72 per cent of all deaths in Oman according to Oman Country profile of World Health Organization (WHO) 2018, detection, screening and treatment of NCDs, as well as palliative care, are key components of the response to NCDs.

The general aim of the NCD Strategic Research Programme, therefore, is to emphasise on the importance of focusing on NCD prevention, early detection, and control as priority areas for research.