The Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP) has organised a series of training workshops to develop the skills of school health staff and enhance their cognitive abilities to ensure the accuracy and reliability of students' health data, thereby supporting the National Programme to Combat Obesity among Children and Adolescents.

Held at the Ministry’s headquarters in Dubai, the Teacher Training Institute in Ajman, and Sharjah, the workshops focused on training school nurses and physical education support staff on recording anthropometric measurements for students aged 5 to 17.

The workshops are aimed to develop standardised protocols for collecting and analysing data related to early obesity indicators, thereby improving preventive health policies, and enabling more informed decision-making based on precise scientific evidence.

The four-day training workshops featured several sub-sessions, as part of the Ministry's strategy to manage preventive and community health programmes, improve quality of life nationwide, and ensure accurate data collection for the National Programme to Combat Obesity among Children and Adolescents. They also aimed to promote public health among community members, especially school students.

They focused on training participants to fill out the student data record forms correctly and completely, a necessary step for maintaining high-quality data in the National Programme to Combat Obesity in Children and Adolescents.

Dr. Hussain Abdul Rahman Al Rand, Assistant Under-Secretary for the Public Health Sector, emphasised that this training workshop is part of the Ministry's ongoing efforts to promote community health and achieve the objectives of the National Programme to Combat Obesity in Children and Adolescents. It is one of several initiatives aimed at equipping school health staff with the latest knowledge and skills necessary to provide exceptional health care for children.