Health promotion strategy as part of Vision 2050 in Oman: the way forward.

INTRODUCTION: Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) have become a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in Oman. The adoption of unhealthy and sedentary lifestyles associated with rising income is trending with a large number of individuals and is contributing to the emergence of substantial health issues. Ultimately, the incidence of NCDs has increased considerably. This review aims to define strategies that can help in attaining Oman's national health promotion goals. RESULTS: The current health promotion strategies have not been adequate or sufficient to meet the national Health Vision 2050 of Oman. CONCLUSION: Unsafe behaviors and unhealthy lifestyles that led to a significant increase in NCDs have emerged in Oman. Careful re-planning and continuous monitoring and evaluation of health promotion activities are necessary for effective implementation of health policies, with the ultimate goal of reducing the NCD burden in Oman.

Heritability and genetic correlations of obesity indices with ambulatory and office beat-to-beat blood pressure in the Oman Family Study.

OBJECTIVE: To more precisely and comprehensively estimate the genetic and environmental correlations between various indices of obesity and BP. METHODS: We estimated heritability and genetic correlations of obesity indices with BP in the Oman family study (n = 1231). Ambulatory and office beat-to-beat BP was measured and mean values for SBP and DBP during daytime, sleep, 24-h and 10 min at rest were calculated. Different indices were used to quantify obesity and fat distribution: BMI, percentage of body fat (%BF), waist circumference and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR). SOLAR software was used to perform univariate and bivariate quantitative genetic analyses adjusting for age, age, sex, age-sex and age--sex interactions. RESULTS: Heritabilities of BP ranged from 30.2 to 38.2% for ambulatory daytime, 16.8--21.4% for sleeping time, 32.1--40.4% for 24-h and 22--24.4% for office beat-to-beat measurements. Heritabilities for obesity indices were 67.8% for BMI, 52.2% for %BF, 37.3% for waist circumference and 37.9% for WHtR. All obesity measures had consistently positive phenotypic correlations with ambulatory and office beat-to-beat SBP and DBP (r-range: 0.14--0.32). Genetic correlations of obesity indices with SBP and DBP were higher than environmental correlations (rG: 0.16--0.50; rE: 0.01--0.31). CONCLUSION: The considerable genetic overlap between a variety of obesity indices and both ambulatory and office beat-to-beat BP highlights the relevance of pleiotropic genes. Future GWAS analyses should discover the specific genes both influencing obesity indices and BP to help unravel their shared genetic background.

Community Participation Approaches for Effective National COVID-19 Pandemic Preparedness and Response: An Experience From Oman.

Oman, like other countries in the world, was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the WHO's declaration of the pandemic, the Ministry of Health of Oman has initiated its preparedness and response to the pandemic, with community participation as one of the key components of the national preparedness and response plan. This paper is a descriptive study aims at describing the three community approaches that exist in Oman and reviewing their role in preparedness and response strategies to COVID-19 pandemic and discuss the lessons learned. Community participation approaches in Oman were translated into action during the pandemic through empowering community members, mobilizing resources, and strengthening the ownership among the local community to ensure effective advocacy, proper networking, and dissemination of information and, subsequently, actions at the level of the community. The first community participation approach is community organizations within the healthy cities and villages initiative, which facilitated networking and acted as a platform for community engagement, reviewing the health information and updating them accordingly to meet evloving demands. The second approach is Willayat (District) health committees, with their unique multi-sectoral structure, that enhanced collaboration at the state level with different community leaders and groups to develop pandemic action plans, which were implemented using available local resources. The third approach is community volunteers that remain the key information providers, particularly when physical access becomes limited due to physical distancing measures. Based on this review, we advocate to further strengthen these approaches and recommends that they are implemented for the protection and promotion of health and well-being, including for health emergencies.

Heritability of ambulatory and beat-to-beat office blood pressure in large multigenerational Arab pedigrees: the 'Oman Family study'.

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the heritability of ambulatory blood pressure (BP), heart rate (HR), and beat-to-beat office BP and HR in an isolated, environmentally and genetically homogeneous Omani Arab population. METHODS: Ambulatory BP measurements were recorded in 1,124 subjects with a mean age of 33.8 ± 16.2 years, using the auscultatory mode of the validated Schiller ambulatory BP Monitor. Beat-to-beat BP and HR were recorded by the Task Force Monitor. Heritability was estimated using quantitative genetic analysis. This was achieved by applying the maximum-likelihood-based variance decomposition method implemented in SOLAR software. RESULTS: We detected statistically significant heritability estimates for office beat-to-beat, 24-hour, daytime, and sleep HR of 0.31, 0.21, 0.20, and 0.07, respectively. Heritability estimates in the above mentioned conditions for systolic BP (SBP)/diastolic BP (DBP)/mean BP (MBP)were all significant and estimated at 0.19/0.19/0.19, 0.30/0.44/0.41, 0.28/0.38/0.39, and 0.21/0.18/0.20,respectively. Heritability estimates for 24-hour and daytime ambulatory SBP, DBP, and MBP ranged from 0.28 to 0.44, and were higher than the heritability estimates for beat-to-beat recordings and sleep periods,which were estimated within a narrow range of 0.18-0.21. CONCLUSION: In this cohort, because shared environments are common to all, the environmental influence that occurs is primarily due to the variation in non-shared environment that is unique to the individual. We demonstrated significant heritability estimates for both beat-to-beat office and ambulatory BP and HR recordings, but 24-hour and daytime ambulatory heritabilities are higher than those from beat-to-beat resting levels and ambulatory night-time recordings.

Genome-wide linkage analysis of hemodynamic parameters under mental and physical stress in extended Omani Arab pedigrees: the Oman Family Study.

BACKGROUND: We performed a genome-wide scan in a homogeneous Arab population to identify genomic regions linked to blood pressure (BP) and its intermediate phenotypes during mental and physical stress tests. METHODS: The Oman Family Study subjects (N = 1277) were recruited from five extended families of ~10 generations. Hemodynamic phenotypes were computed from beat-to-beat BP, electrocardiography and impedance cardiography. Multi-point linkage was performed for resting, mental (word conflict test, WCT) and cold pressor (CPT) stress and their reactivity scores (s), using variance components decomposition-based methods implemented in SOLAR. RESULTS: Genome-wide scans for BP phenotypes identified quantitative trait loci (QTLs) with significant evidence of linkage on chromosomes 1 and 12 for WCT-linked cardiac output (LOD = 3.1) and systolic BP (LOD = 3.5). Evidence for suggestive linkage for WCT was found on chromosomes 3, 17 and 1 for heart rate (LOD = 2.3), DBP (LOD = 2.4) and left ventricular ejection time (LVET), respectively. For △WCT, suggestive QTLs were detected for CO on chr11 (LOD = 2.5), LVET on chr3 (LOD = 2.0) and EDI on chr9 (LOD = 2.1). For CPT, suggestive QTLs for HR and LVET shared the same region on chr22 (LOD 2.3 and 2.8, respectively) and on chr9 (LOD = 2.3) for SBP, chr7 (LOD = 2.4) for SV and chr19 (LOD = 2.6) for CO. For △CPT, CO and TPR top signals were detected on chr15 and 10 (LOD; 2.40, 2.08) respectively. CONCLUSION: Mental stress revealed the largest number of significant and suggestive loci for normal BP reported to date. The study of BP and its intermediate phenotypes under mental and physical stress may help reveal the genes involved in the pathogenesis of essential hypertension.