UAE Residents Top Painkiller Consumption

Residents of the United Arab Emirates are the world’s top consumers of painkillers, a new survey has found.

The study, by market research firm Synogate, found that some 72 percent of UAE residents, including both Emiratis and expatriates, have bought pain medication in the last six months.

Conducted in 15 countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Spain and Indonesia, the study included almost 12,000 respondents. 62 percent of UK residents and 55 percent of US residents were found to have bought pain medication in the last six months.

“The results are fairly surprising” Johanna Handley, Qualitive Director with Synogate told The Media Line. “I explain it by saying it is to do with the temperature: outside heat and inside cold.”

Outside temperature in the Gulf can reach as high as 115 Fahrenheit, while most indoor areas are air conditioned, exposing the body to drastic changes in temperature.

75 percent of UAE residents were also found to believe that pain relievers are essential travel items.

The survey found that 35 percent of UAE residents consider their health to be excellent, 49 percent consider themselves to have “good” health and 35 percent use weight loss products on a daily basis.

“[What] surprised me was the percent that feel they are in good health,” Handley said. “It made me wonder whether they know or what their definition of good health is.”

The UAE has a high rate of diabetes. A recent survey found some 40 percent of all children in the UAE to suffer from diabetes and according to the International Diabetes Federation 21 percent of all Emiratis between the ages of 20 and 79 will suffer from diabetes by 2030.

Prof. Laeth Nasir, chairman of the Department of Family Medicine at UAE University in Al Ain, said it was not surprising that 84 percent of those surveyed felt they were in good or excellent health.

“The population of the United Arab Emirates is primarily expat workers and they tend to be young and healthy, so your pool of chronically ill is much smaller.” he told The Media Line. “If anyone gets ill they tend to move on.”

But according Veronica Velanches, a nurse at the Top Care Medical Center in Abu Dhabi, foreign workers make up the majority of patients.

“Most of our patients are laborers who come in with severe body pain, so they get an injection,” she told The Media Line. “If they come back then they may get another injection and then [painkiller] pills. But it’s on a case to case basis decided by a doctor.”

Hundreds of thousands of expat workers, mainly from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, make up the vast majority of the construction workers that allowed the United Arab Emirates to experience a virtual boom in real estate over the last decade.

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The Media Line Staff

United Arab Emirates (TML)