Saudi Gazette

JEDDAH — The General Authority for Statistics (GaStat) has released the results of a survey on family health carried out in November and December 2017.

According to the survey, 94.2 percent of the population above the age of 15 years is in good health. It said 25.4 percent of the population above 15 years tended to go for regular medical checkups at least once a year to reassure about their health.

Only 37.2 percent of the population has medical insurance and only 13.9 percent of them constituted Saudis, the results of the survey showed.

Chronic diseases are common among people above 65 years, especially among females, the survey showed. It said 8.5 percent of people above 15 years have diabetes and it is more common among males.

The ratio of diabetics among Saudis is 10.1 percent of the sample and males represented a higher percentage than females.

The survey found that 0.17 percent of the population is diagnosed with cancer and 1.14 percent with heart and arterial diseases.

Regarding fertility rate, it said women in the Kingdom have given birth to an average of two babies each and up to 99.7 percent of all child births were under the supervision of specialist doctors.

GaStat said the survey was carried out conforming to international standards adopted by World Health Organization and the United Nations. The indicators of the study included marriage, fertility, child and maternity health, infant mortality, car accidents and smoking. All 13 provinces of the Kingdom were covered in the sample of the survey.

GaStat said the statistics would be the main source of demographic information for preparing development plans in the health and social care sectors at the national level.