Muslim Statistics (Health and Disability)

This page contains statistics concerning health and disability among Muslims. For further statistics of a related nature, see Alcohol & Drugs and Education & Employment (note: Topic and Country sections contain different statistics).

Topic

Death Anxiety

Numerous studies have shown Muslims suffer from death anxiety more than any other religious or non-religious group.

Abstract: A survey design was used to examine if there are any differences between a Christian, a Muslim, and a non-religious group in five personality factors (dominance, liveliness, warmth, apprehension, and sensitivity), general well-being, and death anxiety. No significant differences were found with any of the personality factors between the three groups. Religious participants (Christians and Muslims combined) scored significantly higher for general well-being than non-religious participants. Christians scored significantly lower for death anxiety than both non-religious and Muslim groups, and Muslims scored significantly higher than the non-religious group. These findings are discussed with reference to Terror Management Theory. Suggestions for future research include deeper investigation into beliefs of the afterlife and inclusion of more religions into psychological studies.

2009

The authors of the following study explain their results in terms of a theory called "death apprehension". This says that religion can have varying effects on death anxiety, depending on the actual beliefs held: belief in a demanding and vindictive God and the certainty about the reality of an afterlife can both lead to more anxiety. On the other hand, abiding by religious teachings and believing in divine forgiveness can reduce death anxiety.

Muslims seem to be more likely to believe in a vindictive god, and less likely to believe in a forgiving god. The authors put this down to fundamental differences in Islamic and Christian religions. The lowest fear of death was seen in the non-religious in America and Christians in Malaysia.

Abstract: Numerous studies have sought to determine if religiosity is correlated with fear of death. Findings have been anything but consistent, with reports of negative relationships, positive relationships, no relationship, and even curvilinear associations. To shed light on this still contentious issue, the present study was undertaken among college students in three countries – Malaysia, Turkey, and the United States. Overall, the patterns in all three countries were similar. When linearity was assumed, there is a substantial positive correlation between most religiosity measures and fear of death. Assuming curvilinearity added slightly to the strength of the relationships in the US data and nothing to data from Malaysia or Turkey. Other findings were that on average females were more religious and feared death more than did males, and Muslims expressed considerably greater fear than did members of any other major religion. Results were discussed in the context of a new theory – called death apprehension theory. Among other things, it specifically predicts that death apprehension will be positively related to most religious beliefs and practices.

2012

Depression & Suicide

A recent research in Afghanistan shows that the number of women committing suicide in the country has been increasing.
. . .

The advisor of the president of Afghanistan in health matters estimates that each year 2300 Afghan women and girls, aged between 15 to 40 years who suffer from depression, commit suicide.

Mr. Kakkar said that on the basis of the above information the rate of suicide among women is 5 out of every 100,000.

July 2010

While speaking at a press conference in Kabul he [Faiz Mohammad Kakkar, the advisor of the president of Afghanistan in healthcare matters] said that presently the number of women with acute depression in Afghanistan is 28% (nearly 2 million people) of the population of the country.
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In 2008 the Ministry of Public Health of Afghanistan had estimated that two-thirds of the Afghan population suffered from mental illnesses.

July 2010

Officials are alarmed by what they describe as a worsening epidemic of suicides, particularly among young women tormented by being forced to marry too young, to someone they do not love.

While reliable statistics on anything are hard to come by in Iraq, officials say there have been as many as 50 suicides this year in this city of 350,000 — at least double the rate in the United States — compared with 80 all of last year. The most common methods among women are self-immolation and gunshots.

Among the many explanations given, like poverty and madness, one is offered most frequently: access to the Internet and to satellite television, which came after the start of the war. This has given young women glimpses of a better life, unencumbered by the traditions that have constricted women for centuries to a life of obedience and child-rearing, one devoid of romance.

June 2012

Fistula

Northern Nigeria has one of the highest rates of child marriage in the world: nearly half of all girls here are married by the age of 15.

The consequences have been devastating. Nigeria has the highest maternal mortality rate in Africa and one of the world’s highest rates of fistula, a condition that can occur when the pressure of childbirth tears a hole between the vagina and the bladder or rectum. Many women are left incontinent for life. Up to 800,000 women suffer from fistula in Nigeria.
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Dr Waaldijk operates on up to 600 women a year, with no electricity or running water... Some have been divorced by their husbands - it is estimated that up to half of adolescent girls in northern Nigeria are divorced... The Nigerian federal Government has attempted to outlaw child marriage. In 2003 it passed the Child Rights Act, prohibiting marriage under the age of 18. In the Muslim northern states, though, there has been fierce resistance to the Act, with many people portraying it as antiIslamic.
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Half of Nigeria’s 36 states have passed the Act, but it has been adopted by only one of the dozen Muslim states - and even that one made a crucial amendment substituting the age of 18 for the term “puberty”.

Each state in Nigeria has the constitutional right to amend legislation to comply with its local traditions and religion, meaning that central government is powerless to impose a minimum age of marriage.

November 2008

HIV/AIDS

An AIDS crisis is threatening to overwhelm many predominantly Muslim countries but their leaders remain in a state of denial and are doing little to stem the deadly problem, a pioneering study says.

In one of the most comprehensive reports on AIDS covering the Muslim world, experts warned of serious repercussions if governments continued to sweep the problem under the carpet.

In a report released by the Seattle-based think tank, the National Bureau of Asian Research, they said "if leaders continue to ignore the problem, AIDS could debilitate or even destabilize some of these societies by killing large numbers of people in the 15 to 49-year age group."

This would deprive the Muslim countries of some of their best, brightest, and most economically productive members, said Laura Kelley and Nicholas Eberstadt in the report.

A private infectious disease specialist, Kelly had previously undertaken AIDS research for the US National Intelligence Council as well as other diseases for the USAID, the principal foreign aid agency of the United States, while Eberstadt is a scholar at American Enterprise Institute, a conservative Washington-based think tank.

"An important take home message for all Muslim nations is that real behaviours on the streets are sometimes in marked contrast to the expected behaviours of good Muslims and that is something that leaders in these countries must deal with," Kelly told AFP.

The report said that even though the Muslim world was home to behaviors such as premarital sex, adultery, prostitution, homosexuality, and intravenous drug use -- which help spread the HIV virus that causes AIDS -- many governments have been slow to respond to the rapidly spreading disease.

"What is especially troubling to behold is the reluctance to admit that Muslims engage in exactly those same dangerous behaviors that support the transmission and spread of HIV/AIDS elsewhere," it said, blaming "deeply rooted cultural and religious attitudes.

"This reluctance even to recognize the problem will only accelerate the epidemic and make it more difficult for the international community to provide meaningful support and treatment," the report said.

"We would have thought the Muslim world was in a sense vaccinated from this kind of pandemic but in fact the dreadful news is that it is not, said Michael Birt, the director of National Bureau of Asian Research's center for health.

"Now with the Muslim world becoming involved, its truly a global crisis," he told AFP.
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Officially, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) estimates the total HIV population of North Africa, the Middle East, and predominantly Muslim Asia at nearly one million people.

At the end of 2003, UNAIDS estimated that up to 420,000 in Mali, 180,000 people in Indonesia, 150,000 in Pakistan, and 61,000 in Iran had HIV/AIDS.

"Those numbers, however, are severely understated," Kelly and Eberstadt said in a separate report on Foreign Policy magazine, published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.

They said UNAIDS figures depended upon surveillance data -- "thus a lack of information can be taken as a lack of infection."

UNAIDS data on the number of people living with HIV/AIDS is completely missing for Afghanistan, Turkey, and Somalia, "all nations with large numbers of at-risk populations," they said.

The study cited Iran and Bangladesh as among Muslim governments that seem to be combating the problem effectively.

June 2005

The AIDS virus is spreading like an epidemic in some Middle East and North African countries because of homosexual encounters between men, a study warned on Wednesday.

"This systematic review and data synthesis indicate that HIV epidemics appear to be emerging among MSM (men who have sex with men) in at least a few MENA countries," said a study published in PLoS Medicine.

The study, titled "Are HIV Epidemics among Men Who Have Sex with Men Emerging in the Middle East and North Africa?", warned that the levels "could already be in a concentrated state among several MSM groups."

It showed that the rates of HIV infection among MSM in some countries have exceeded the five percent threshold which defines concentrated epidemics, namely in Egypt, Sudan and Tunisia.

The study put the rates of HIV infection among MSM in Egypt's main cities of Cairo and Alexandria at 5.7 percent and 5.9 percent respectively, while the rate among receptive MSM in Sudan's capital reached 9.3 percent.

Tunisia's total rate was put at 4.9 percent, ranging between 0.8 and 6.3 percent in three regions.

"There is an urgent need to expand HIV surveillance and access to HIV testing, prevention, and treatment services in a rapidly narrowing window of opportunity to prevent the worst of HIV transmission among MSM in the Middle East and North Africa," the study said.

"Prevention of male-to-male HIV transmission must be set as a top priority for HIV/AIDS strategies in MENA," it added.

August 2011

Impotence

Saudi Arabia is the world’s sixth largest consumer of sex drugs as domestic demand is as much as 10 times that in Russia, according to a newspaper.

Alriyadyh Arabic language daily, citing an unnamed medical study in the Gulf Kingdom, said nearly 12 per cent of Saudi Arabia’s 20 million national men are suffering from impotence and that 80 per cent of the cases are associated with psychological problems.

“Saudis are the sixth largest consumers of sex drugs in the world…their consumption is as much as 10 times that of Russia although the population in that country is more than 10 times the Saudis,” it said.

“Besides psychological factors, diabetes is the main cause of impotence in Saudi Arabia as nearly 15 per cent of the Saudis suffer from that disease against only 3-5 per cent in other countries…other factors include the high rate of high blood pressure cases, obesity and lack of exercise.”

According to the study, Arab countries spend more than $10 billion on Viagra and other anti-impotence medicines every year and that Saudi Arabia alone spends over $1.5 billion.

It is followed by Egypt and the UAE, which spend about $on e billion and $500 million respectively.

March 2012

Inbreeding

It has been estimated that almost half of all Muslims in the world are inbred

A rough estimate shows that close to half of all Muslims in the world are inbred: In Pakistan, 70 percent of all marriages are between first cousins (so-called "consanguinity") and in Turkey the amount is between 25-30 percent.

Statistical research on Arabic countries shows that up to 34 percent of all marriages in Algiers are consanguine (blood related), 46 percent in Bahrain, 33 percent in Egypt, 80 percent in Nubia (southern area in Egypt), 60 percent in Iraq, 64 percent in Jordan, 64 percent in Kuwait, 42 percent in Lebanon, 48 percent in Libya, 47 percent in Mauritania, 54 percent in Qatar, 67 percent in Saudi Arabia, 63 percent in Sudan, 40 percent in Syria, 39 percent in Tunisia, 54 percent in the United Arabic Emirates and 45 percent in Yemen.

August 2010

Birth Defects

According to a global report on birth defects which was conducted in 2006, the following countries are the ones most affect by birth defects per 1000 live births:

1. Sudan 82.0/1000
2. Saudi Arabia 81.3/1000
3. Benin 77.9/1009
4. Burkina Faso 77.0/1000
5. Palestinian territories 76.6/1000
6. United Arab Emirates 75.9/1000
7. Tajikistan 75.2/1000
8. Iraq 74.9/1000
9. Kuwait 74.9/1000
10. Afghanistan 74.8/1000
11. Oman 74.8/1000
12. Syria 74.3/1000
13. Pakistan 73.5/1000
14. Nigeria 73.5/1000
15. Kyrgyzstan 73.4/1000
16. Qatar 73.4/1000
17. Bahrain 73.3/1000
18. Jordan 73.1/1000
19. Libya 73.0/1000
20. Tunisia 72.7/1000
21. Morocco 72.3/1000
22. Yemen 72.1/1000

Obesity

Up to 70 percent of women and 50 percent of men living in the oil-rich Gulf Arab states [Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates] are overweight or obese, according to a study released at a seminar in Qatar on Thursday.

"Obesity occurs much more often in women in Gulf states where it affects 50 to 70 percent of married women and 30 to 50 percent of married men," said a study presented by Qatari expert Issam Abd Rabbu at the "Facts About Obesity" seminar.

Rabbu said the problem was also taking a toll on children, "affecting five to 10 percent of pre-school children" at a rate that grows "to 10 to 15 percent of primary school children ... then 20 to 40 percent for secondary school children".

These obesity rates are "much higher than in developed countries", he said in his study, called "Obesity: The Illness of the Century."

September 2005

Islamic Republic of Mauritania, the mirror opposite of the West on questions of women’s weight. To men here, fat is sexy. And in this patriarchal region, many Mauritanian women do everything possible — and have everything possible done to them — to put on pounds.
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A 2001 government survey of 68,000 women found that one in five between ages 15 and 49 had been deliberately overfed. And nearly 70 percent — and even more among teenagers — said they did not regret it.

July 2007

While some women are able to hide the bloat of a large meal behind a burka, the garment and the traditions surrounding it can also discourage exercise both psychologically and practically.
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Studies indicate that up to 70 percent of women in the Gulf states are obese. According to The Economist magazine’s world rankings, the countries with the highest obesity rates among women are Muslim countries: 1. Qatar 2. Saudi Arabia 3. Lebanon. (The United States ranked 8th on this list.)

The picture is not much brighter in America, where Muslim women still face high rates of obesity and its accompanying health problems.

July 2010

“The Gulf society is suffering from a rise in obesity, particularly in women, a problem that is partly disguised by the traditional black female over-garment worn in the Gulf….the abaya serves to hide the extent of obesity in Gulf women. In the same way, the male dishdasha (garment) also hides men’s bellies,” said Dr. Abdul Rahman Musaiqir, head of the Arab Center for Nutrition at Bahrain University.
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In its report about the conference on Wednesday, the Saudi Okaz newspaper cited data by the World Health Organization showing Saudi Arabia has one of the largest rates of obesity at around 35.6 per cent, the third behind the tiny Pacific Island nations of Nauru at 78.5 per cent and Tonga at 56 per cent.
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Al-Raddadi said the prevalence of obesity in the Kingdom increased from 22.1 per cent in the early 1990s to 35.6 per cent in 2005.

January 2011

Although Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, spends in excess of SR19 billion ($5.1 billion) a year on treatment of diseases related to fatness, more than three million children in the Gulf Kingdom are suffering from obesity.

“Obesity kills an average 20,000 people in Saudi Arabia,” Dr Ayed Al Qahtani, a government specialist, told a medical conference in Riyadh, according to local newspapers.

“Latest statistics showed that nearly 70 per cent of the Kingdom’s population are suffering from fatness, which shortens the presumed human life by an average 20 years.”

February 2011

A new study issued by the Gulf Kingdom’s largest bank, obtained by Emirates 24/7, found that such diseases [blood pressure, diabetes and obesity] are increasing at an alarming rate and that more than 70 per cent of the Saudis are now overweight.
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The study cited results of a survey released by the Saudi Diabetes and Endocrine Association (SDEA) in 2010 showing that over 70 per cent of the Saudi population is alarmingly obese.

May 2011

Qatar has among the greatest prevalence of obesity and diabetes in the world, The New York Times cited health experts as saying.

The small oil-rich Gulf state ranked sixth globally for prevalence of obesity and had the highest rate of obesity among boys in the Middle East and North African region.

By 2015, it is predicted that 73 percent of women and 69 percent of men will be obese in Qatar.

July 2013

Organ Donation

Most Muslims are reluctant organ donors, yet are eager recipients. Once of the reasons given is the belief that you should not deface the human body. Apparently the defacement of the bodies of non-Muslims are fine with most of the Muslims who believe this. And almost a quarter of those surveyed said they would only want to donate an organ if they knew it was going to another Muslim.

Of all religious groups, Muslims are the most resistant to organ donation, largely because they're confused about whether it's permitted within their faith, a British medical expert told delegates to an international transplantation conference in Vancouver Tuesday.

Dr. Adnan Sharif, a Muslim kidney specialist completing his training, led an international survey to find out why Muslims agree with organ donation, and would happily accept a transplant, but aren't so keen on consenting to being donors.

In his presentation to delegates at the 23rd international congress of the Transplantation Society, Sharif said nearly three-quarters of the 891 participants in the survey said they would be glad to receive an organ if needed but only 10.6 per cent of respondents were registered organ donors.
. . .
"Muslims have this argument, this belief, that organ donation is a sin even though most scholars say it's okay, and in fact welcome, because of the belief that to save one life is to save all humanity.

"Transplantation obviously did not exist when the Koran was written. There is a line that says you shouldn't deface the human body. It is a reference to ancient Arab practices of defacing bodies after death. I think people do use that as an excuse not to be organ donors," said Sharif, who conducted the survey with four colleagues from the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, England.
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The online and printed survey, which solicited respondents through word of mouth, social networking, Muslim organizations and mosques, is expected to be published in a medical journal soon. He said the survey detected some disturbing attitudes that would appear to be based on prejudice. For instance, almost a quarter of respondents said they would only want to donate an organ if they knew it was going to another Muslim. About 10 per cent said they would prefer to receive an organ from a fellow Muslim.

"It's a help-your-own kind of attitude, but to direct an organ to a certain individual is not only unethical, but illegal."

August 2010

Polio

In Nigera, only the Northern states are Islamic.

In Nigeria polio is now largely confined to just eight states in the north of the country. But there the numbers of victims are rising, not falling.
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Nigeria now accounts for more than half the world's polio victims.
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In parts of Muslim northern Nigeria, only women can enter households if the husband is not present, so all the vaccinators are women, and they are paid a small amount of money for their time.
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In parts of northern Nigeria more than 50% of the children have never been vaccinated against polio, and often their parents refuse to cooperate because of mistrust and suspicion.
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For more than a year from mid-2003 the northern states stopped the vaccination programme altogether after rumours swept the country that the polio vaccine caused Aids and that it was all part of a western plot to sterilise Muslim girls.

March 2006

It is estimated that at the start of 2011 Pakistan was accounting for nearly 30 per cent of all polio cases recorded worldwide with 197 cases reported from different parts of the country.

September 2012

In 2013, only three countries (Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan) remain polio-endemic.

April 2013

Country

Muslim World

OIC member states account for 11 of the 16 countries with the highest child death rates in the world. Around 4.3 million children under five in OIC countries die each year from preventable disease and malnutrition, over 60% of them dying before their first birthdays. With a few notable exceptions (14 out of 57 countries), all three OIC sub-regions are failing to see the rates of progress needed to achieve the Millennium Development Goal on child mortality. In sub-Saharan Africa, child mortality rates are more than double the world average, and in Côte d’Ivoire, rates have actually worsened. Access to treatment for acute respiratory infections, malaria and diarrhoea – all major killers of children – remains limited in sub-Saharan Africa. A child born in sub- Saharan Africa can expect to live only 46 years, compared to 78 in industrialized countries. In many OIC countries, high fertility and lack of access to skilled medical care contribute to some of the highest maternal death rates in the world. Every thirty minutes, an Afghan woman dies during childbirth. In Afghanistan, one in six pregnancies results in death; in the African sub-region, the average is one death for every 15 pregnancies. Globally, the average is one in 74.
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More than a third of all children in OIC countries excluding the Arab sub-region live with persistent malnutrition. Close to half of under-fives in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Yemen are both underweight and stunted. Levels of exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months after birth within the OIC are among the lowest in the world.
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Only six countries in the world are polio-endemic, five of which are OIC countries.
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[in OIC countries] only 55% use adequate sanitation facilities.

November 2005

While the global trend shows that women are more likely to be obese than men, in the Gulf and other Arab countries the disparity is much greater.

While in terms of overweight men and women are equal, often the percentage of women who are obese is twice that of men. Possible reasons for this disparity could be the culture of women staying at home, leading to a lack of exercise.
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Overall spending on healthcare in the Gulf is just $1,200 per capita, compared with $5,000 in “developed countries,” according to an article in the Kipp Report, a Middle East business website.

July 2013

Germany

The more recent data show, however, that immigrants with a Turkish background fall ill more frequently than German natives from chronic, non-transferable diseases, such as coronary heart conditions, diabetes mellitus and lipometabolic disorders, and also infectious diseases such as hepatitis. Also, psychosomatic illnesses seem to be appearing more often among the first-generation Turkish immigrants (Bilgin, 2003). A survey among children of non-German origin in an inner-city district of Berlin found that the generally worse social situation of immigrants had a particularly bad impact on the health status of children. A striking number of children with Turkish origins showed obesity - 23 per cent of these children were heavily overweight, compared to 14 per cent of native Germans and other immigrants. (Butler, 2003).

2007

Lebanon

The expression is no longer 'smoking like a Turk', but 'like a Lebanese': with over 65% of men and 54% of women smoking cigarettes or the more traditional narghile (water pipe), Lebanon has one of the highest levels of smokers in Asia Minor, the Middle East and north Africa. A report by Credit Libanese, one of Beirut's leading banks, says that one of the factors encouraging young people to take up the smoking habit is the particularly low cost of cigarettes: a packet of twenty in Lebanon costs as little as 35 Euro cents. Smoking has already been banned in public places in Turkey, and will also be banned in Syria within six months, and in Gulf countries there are high fines for selling cigarettes to under-20s, but a lack of laws against the consumption and sale of tobacco puts Lebanon in last place for countries in the region trying to combat the smoking habit.

October 2009

Pakistan

According to the National Nutrition Survey (NNS) 2011, 43 percent children born in Pakistan are afflicted by stunting (low height for age). The rate of child mortality in Pakistan is 87 deaths per 1000 births. Although full immunisation coverage of children between the ages of 12-23 months has increased from 78 per cent in 2008-09 to 81 per cent in 2010-11, it is still short of the MDG target for Pakistan (90 per cent for the years 2010-11).

September 2012

Qatar

In addition to making physical activity difficult, the traditional attire prevents sun exposure and leads to another dysfunction, that of vitamin D deficiency. According to a study by the Hamad Medical Hospital in Doha, 90% of those involved in the study suffered from this deficiency due to a lack of exposure to the sun's rays.
. . .
According to the Center for Arab Genomic Studies (CAGS) there are over 250 types of genetic disorders in the United Arab Emirates, the country seeing the fifth highest rate of inter-family marriages, with half being between members of the same family. The true tragedy linked to this cultural habit are the cases of children with birth defects, In Qatar, about 19,000 children are born every year, and the Paediatric Surgery Department of Doha's Hamad Medical Corporation carries out about 3,000 paediatric operations every year, including over 200 on children born with serious birth defects. This is why at Qatar's First International Paediatric Surgery Congress and the 12th edition of the Pan-Arab Paediatric Surgeons Association Congress there was discussion on the surgical procedures for birth defects, as it is the main problem in the sector.

March 2012

United Kingdom

Muslim males and females in Great Britain had the highest rates of reported ill health in 2001. Age-standardized rates of 'not good' health were 13 per cent for Muslim males and 16 per cent for Muslim females.

After taking account of the different age structures of the groups, Muslims had the highest rates of disability. Almost a quarter of Muslim females (24 per cent) had a disability, as did one in five (21 per cent) Muslim males.

October 2004

90% of British Pakistani's in England and Wales are Muslim.

It is estimated that at least 55% of British Pakistanis are married to first cousins
. . .

But the statistics for recessive genetic illness in cousin marriages make sobering reading.

British Pakistanis are 13 times more likely to have children with genetic disorders than the general population - they account for just over 3% of all births but have just under a third of all British children with such illnesses.

Indeed, Birmingham Primary Care Trust estimates that one in ten of all children born to first cousins in the city either dies in infancy or goes on to develop serious disability as a result of a recessive genetic disorder.

November 2005

• Muslims have the highest rate of ill health comparative to any other faith group once age structure has been accounted for.
• Muslims have the highest rate of disability of all faith groups, controlling for age.

December 2005

Yemen

According to the Multiple Indicators Cluster Survey (MICS) conducted by Ministry of Public Health and Population in September 2006....25 percent of children aged between 2-9 years are affected with at least one type of disability, the more widespread being delayed motor skills and slow cognitive development in that order.

November 2008

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