On the event of the Heart Awareness Campaign, Chairman of King Faisal Cardiac Sciences Center, Cardiology Consultant and head of the organizing committee, Dr. Mohammad Alamgir, pointed out that the aim of the awareness campaign is to spread awareness about the causes and risk factors that lead to various heart diseases such as coronary atherosclerosis disease, myocardial insufficiency, cardiac arrhythmia, in addition to early detection, prevention and treatment of such diseases.
The Heart Awareness Campaign was organized by King Faisal Cardiac Sciences Center, the Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs, Western Region in collaboration with the Kafa, a charitable anti-smoking organization. The campaign’s exhibition was opened by the Deputy Executive Director of Medical Services Dr. Essam Al Zimaiti and Deputy Executive Director of Operations, Mr. Ahmed Al Buluwi, and was attended by several medical departments in King Abdulaziz Medical City - Jeddah.
Moreover, Dr. Mohammad Alamgir said that heart disease in Saudi Arabia is one of the leading causes of premature death in both sexes due to is the prevalence of a lifestyle in which there is almost no type of exercise along with poor diet patterns. In addition, heart diseases are increasing due to what we call health ignorance, where people tend to put off going to the specialists and physicians,
As the World Health Organization reports 2014 reports indicated that heart and coronary atherosclerosis disease is the leading cause of death in Saudi Arabia and the resultant mortality rate is up to 24% of the total mortality rate, and 27th worldwide when it comes to the prevalence of heart diseases.
There are several factors related to an unhealthy lifestyle that might increase the incidence of heart disease such as smoking, eating unhealthy food, obesity, high fat and cholesterol levels, diabetes, stress, lack of regular exercise and exposure to stress and psychological pressures.
During the campaign, the focus was drawn to the principle of changing the patterns of daily lifestyles such as quitting smoking, following a healthy diet and encouraging the community to exercise regularly. The campaign also aims to teach community members how to perform a CPR in cases of cardiac arrest in addition to how to check your pulse and heart rate for yourself and for others.
It is worth mentioning that the medical exhibition was relocated to the outpatient center targeting the consultants and visitors in which several KAMC-J departments participated such as the Department of Clinical Nutrition, the Department of Primary Health Care, the Comprehensive specialized Clinics Center, Physiotherapy Department and Life Support Centre in addition to a number of medicine students from the Department of Academic Affairs, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences.