Ibn Battuta mall joins diabetes fight

Ibn Battuta mall will offer free blood sugar testing to shoppers as part of a five-day campaign against diabetes early next month.

During the ‘Unite for Diabetes' drive being organised from November 10 to coincide with World Diabetes Day on November 14, shoppers can evaluate their risk of diabetes, a disease that affects one in five people in the UAE.

Undetected cases

"This is the official figure, but the frightening part is there are many cases of undetected diabetes. So the numbers could be much higher," said Dr Prem Jagyasi, Consultant of Jebel Ali Hospital, a campaign partner.

Marc Jones, Marketing Manager, Ibn Battuta Mall, said that awareness is a major concern in the region.

"When we launched this campaign last year, we realised that not many people were willing to admit that they could be prone to diabetes."

To drive home the message, the mall will organise events and a funds drive for local diabetes charities. The disease affects 246 million people worldwide.

Of the 7,000 check-ups conducted at the mall last year, Jagyasi said over 42 per cent of the people were overweight, 15 per cent were obese and five per cent were morbidly obese.

Another alarming figure, said Dr Jagyasi, was that of the people with diabetes, 26 per cent had pre-high sugar level despite taking diabetes medication. People need to realise that taking pills does not imply one can neglect following a healthy lifestyle.

Dr Jagyasi said the UAE spends billions of dollars on the management of diabetes. “If corporations spend even a fraction of this money on diabetes awareness, we can go a long way in preventing the disease.''

What's up

The following activities will be held at Ibn Battuta mall's China Court:

• Free diabetes risk check-up
• Diabetes-friendly cooking demonstrations by restaurants and supermarkets
• Free biometric analysis
• Exercise and workout demonstration from Fitness First personal trainers