Your Health First inspires thousands around Qatar to build a healthier lifestyle during the National Sport Day
The latest in health technology inspired thousands of people to improve their health after visiting Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar’s (WCMC-Q) booth during National Sport Day.
The college’s Sahtak Awalan – Your Health First health campaign had partnered with Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) and had a stand featuring the latest in medical and health technology at the QOC’s Sport Zone off the Corniche. The QOC is also a strategic partner of WCMC-Q’s in the Satak Awalan campaign.
From Thursday 6 February through to National Sport Day, visitors to the Sport Zone queued up to to use the cutting-edge equipment to assess their health.
This included the AGE reader, which is able to provide a prediction of the risk of major chronic diseases like cardiovascular disease, and a body analyzer machine that calculates muscle mass, metabolic age and bone mineral mass among many other measurements. In addition, visitors were able to get metabolic and sleep assessments, and take cognitive tests.
Dr. Javaid Sheikh, Dean of WCMC-Q, said the number of people who had taken the time to visit the stand and find out more about their health was gratifying.
He said: “The equipment and diagnostic procedures available were unprecedented for a public event like this and gave many people a real insight into their current state of well-being. The success of the Sahtak Awalan stand was also due to the location and I would like to congratulate and thank Qatar Olympic Committee for creating such an attractive, professional venue that thousands of people wanted to visit it. Dr. Sheikh added: “Too often we take our health for granted but because of the equipment on the Sahtak Awalan stand, some visitors received a gentle reminder that they have a duty to look after their health, not only for themselves but for their friends and family.
“This is something we should all do, though, and the Sahtak Awalan campaign is keen to stress that just making small lifestyle changes – eating more fruit and vegetables and exercising for 30 minutes each day – will achieve long term health benefits.”
Along with the high-tech equipment, the Sahtak Awalan team brought a host of information about a person’s ideal weight, healthy recipes along with practical fitness aids like pedometers that encourage people to walk further and skipping ropes with integrated calorie-counters. There was also a huge canvas for people to paint and literature available about the little things that we can all do to improve our well-being.
The aim was to inspire people to improve their health and make 2014 they year when they change their lives for the better. Sahtak Awalan – Your Health First is a unique, innovative campaign designed to transform the health of the nation in line with the National Health Strategy 2011-2016 and Qatar National Vision 2030. Created by WCMC-Q and run in conjunction with the Supreme Council of Health, the campaign was launched in June 2012 to inform the population – both nationals and expats – about healthy lifestyles and to encourage them to adopt behaviors that will promote their long-term health. It is a five-year initiative that will end in 2016. Although the campaign is inclusive and embraces all nationalities, genders and age groups, there is a focus on youth as changing the behavior of the new generation will have long-term effects. Sahtak Awalan – Your Health First has attracted high-profile partnerships with Qatar Foundation, the Supreme Education Council, Qatar Petroleum, Oxy Qatar, ExxonMobil Inc., Qatar Olympic Committee and Vodafone Qatar.
