More than 400 students and staff have been trained through a programme aimed at helping children develop healthier habits from an early age and reduce their risk of obesity and Type 2 diabetes, a condition that affects around 15 per cent of the population.
Established in 2012, the Diabetes Mobile Unit (DMU) visits Grade Three pupils delivering lessons designed to equip children with practical knowledge about nutrition, exercise and other aspects of a healthy lifestyle and encourages them to share what they learn with their families.
The initiative is a joint project between the Bahrain Diabetes Society and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland – Medical University of Bahrain. It is sponsored by Rotary Club of Manama and implemented in collaboration with the ministries of Education and Health and has been approved by the Higher Education Council (HEC).
The initiative comes as more than 40 per cent of children in Bahrain are classified as overweight, underlining the importance of addressing unhealthy habits from an early age.
“Every year, we have around 50 to 60 who join the programme and are trained in several areas,” nursing lecturer and DMU academic director Danah Smith told the GDN. “The nursing and medical students are trained to deliver interactive educational sessions covering nutrition, portion sizes and healthy mealtime habits.
“Children are also encouraged to eat more fruit and vegetables in their whole form rather than as juices, reduce their consumption of processed foods and develop healthier eating habits,” she explained.
The programme has also evolved to give students from different disciplines experience of working together.
When it was relaunched in 2024, medical students were brought into the programme alongside nursing students, allowing them to train side-by-side and develop the skills needed for collaborative work in their future careers.
“The training does not end once students complete the programme,” Ms Smith said, adding that graduates can return to help train new participants, sharing their experience of working with children and offering advice on how to keep pupils engaged during the sessions.
This includes preparing students to deal with more sensitive situations that can arise when discussing diet, weight and health with children.
“There can be situations where children may be bullying each other during these conversations on diet, health and being overweight, so it is important for students to learn how to manage these situations,” Ms Smith said.
While the lessons are delivered at school, the DMU also aims to ensure the message reaches beyond the classroom and into the home.
Pupils receive a bilingual Arabic-English storybook to take home, telling the story of a family affected by diabetes and obesity. It features a father living with Type 2 diabetes, a mother with gestational diabetes and children at risk of obesity.
“For unhealthy behaviour to change in the kingdom, we need to reach the entire family,” Ms Smith said, stressing that it is crucial to reach children as young as possible because childhood offers a key opportunity to shape attitudes towards food, physical activity and wellbeing before unhealthy habits become established. “By helping children understand the benefits of healthy living early on, the initiative aims to make healthier choices part of their daily routines and reduce their risk of developing conditions such as Type 2 diabetes later in life.”
However, changing behaviour requires more than a single educational programme, Ms Smith said, calling for more physical education classes in schools.
“Children need to be more active every single day and a lot needs to be done on a national level,” she said.
The need for broader action has also been highlighted by experts amid growing concern over childhood obesity in Bahrain.
Doctors at the second Bahrain Diabetes and Obesity Conference recently called for stronger measures to tackle rising childhood obesity, including tighter controls on the marketing and sale of unhealthy products, healthier food environments in schools, pricing measures linked to sugar content and clearer, easier-to-understand food labels.
julia@gdnmedia.bh
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