Cancers linked to obesity much more common in the UAE, research reveals

Healthier lifestyles could help reduce the burden of diseases associated with being overweight

Changes in dietary habits due to westernisation has been suggested as a cause behind the rise in obesity in the Gulf. PA

Types of cancer that are often linked to obesity tend to be much more common in the UAE than globally, a study has revealed.

Oesophageal cancer is having three times the impact in the country compared with the global average, while colon/rectal cancer and liver cancer also develop much more frequently.

The authors of the research, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Global Health, said a renewed focus on combating obesity in the Gulf could reduce the burden of cancers linked to being overweight.

They looked at the number of years of healthy life lost to disability, illness or death as a result of different cancers.

Totals were adjusted for the population’s age structure to give the age-standardised, disability-adjusted life years rate (ASDR).

The study reported that ASDR of oesophageal cancer in the UAE is 85.07 for every 100,000 people. For colon/rectal cancer, the ASDR is 66.18 for every 100,000, well over double the average rate globally of 24.40 for every 100,000.

Another cancer often linked to obesity, liver cancer, has an ASDR of 35.49 for every 100,000 in the UAE, close to double the global average of 19.24 for every 100,000. High rates for cancers linked to obesity were also found for other Gulf countries.

"One possible explanation for this increase is the rising rate of obesity in GCC countries, influenced by westernisation," Dr Rbab Bajunaid of King Abdullah International Medical Research Centre in Jeddah and the study’s corresponding author, told The National.

"This shift has led to changes in dietary habits, characterised by the increased consumption of processed and high-fat foods."

The high rates of cancers often associated with obesity could, the researchers wrote in their study, "be attributed to the continuing exponential rise of obesity in GCC countries".

"Indeed, due to the significant modernisation and adoption of the 'western lifestyle' in the last three decades, GCC countries are among the regions with the highest prevalence of obesity globally and even higher than high-income countries," they added.

Dr Raghib Ali, principal investigator of the UAE Healthy Future Study, described obesity as a key risk factor for "a number of cancers".

"The population in the GCC is very young," he said. "As the population ages, that will lead to very large increases in cancer rates and obesity will make that worse."

Lifestyle the key

The growth in the frequency of obesity in the UAE and other Gulf countries in recent decades, attributed to changes in diet and a lack of physical activity, has also been linked to high rates of type 2 diabetes.

Some other parts of the world where rates of obesity have increased, including the Gulf, experience high rates of cancers associated with obesity.

For example, deaths from liver cancer have more than tripled in the UK since the early 1970s, something that the British Liver Trust has said is largely the result of alcohol consumption and obesity.

Dr Bharat Pankhania, senior clinical lecturer in the University of Exeter Medical School in the UK, said it was difficult to disentangle the effects of diet and obesity in causing cancer.

He said, though, that obesity could suppress the immune system, making it harder for the body to eliminate cancerous cells that arise.

"Once [cancerous cells] have established themselves, they go on to produce the disease," he said.

The authors of the new paper said that their findings offered "important information that can guide policymakers in creating effective prevention programmes".

"Strategies aimed at reducing weight and encouraging physical activity could greatly lessen the impact of diseases in the GCC countries," they said.

Health policymakers could consider a range of approaches to reduce the burden of cancers linked to obesity, Dr Bajunaid said, including encouraging measures that help people to lose weight and adopt healthy lifestyles.

The authorities could, he said, "increase awareness of the health risks associated with obesity through public service announcements and educational campaigns".

"[Countries could] enhance the availability of healthcare services offering obesity prevention and treatment programmes, including nutritional counselling and weight management clinics," he said.

Dr Bajunaid said food labels that gave detailed nutritional content could be helpful, as could taxes on unhealthy food and drinks.

"The UAE has implemented several national initiatives to control obesity, such as the National UAE Taskforce on Obesity and the National Strategy for Wellbeing 2031, which have likely incorporated many of the previous recommendations," he said.

In 2017, the UAE introduced a 50 per cent tax on carbonated drinks and a 100 per cent tax on energy drinks, followed three years later by a 50 per cent tax on sugar-sweetened drinks.

People should try to reduce their portion size when eating and could consider adopting a Mediterranean-influenced diet, Dr Pankhania said.

"The rainbow foods – fruits, nuts, berries, greens, vegetables, fermented stuff like yoghurt, pickles, less to minimal meat – that’s the perfect combination for a good, healthy diet," he said.

"In addition to good diet is exercise … and, finally, sleep well. Eat well, sleep well, exercise well."

Dr Bajunaid struck a note of caution about the study, saying that as it was population-based, there could be risks in assuming that the results applied to individuals.

Titled The burden of cancer-related deaths attributable to high body mass index in the Gulf Co-operation Council: Results from the global burden of disease study (GBDS) 2019, the study was published in May.

The study, which the new paper uses data from, has been running for more than three decades and involves thousands of scientists from more than 100 countries.