The Connecticut-sized nation of Qatar has the second highest per capita GDP in the world, with a native elite of 250,000 surrounded by more than a million foreign workers. Now the combination of new wealth and old traditions is leading to serious health problems:
According to the International Association for the Study of Obesity, Qatar ranks sixth globally for prevalence of obesity and has the highest rate of obesity among boys in the Middle East and North African region. A recent article in the Qatari newspaper Al Watan said that local health experts predicted that within five years, 73 percent of Qatari women and 69 percent of the men would qualify as obese.
Obesity is considered the most important factor in the development of diabetes and is a prime contributor to many other ailments, like hypertension. The International Diabetes Federation ranks Qatar fifth globally in terms of the proportion of people aged 20 to 79 with diabetes.
The March of Dimes Foundation, a United States charity that focuses on trying to wipe out birth defects, listed Qatar as 16th globally for the incidence of birth defects per 1,000 live births. The chief cause of the problem in Qatar is consanguineous marriages, experts here said. Saudi Arabia ranked second globally.
For all of these challenges, and for all of its wealth, Qatar has primarily focused on the treatment of diseases rather than on prevention.