Sousse is the 4th largest city in Tunisia (pop. 547,000: 2004).
- There are 92 primary health care centres, two university hospitals and 168 primary health care physicians in Sousse.
Risk factors
Tunisia is experiencing an increase in life expectancy and adoption of lifestyles associated with non-communicable diseases. As a result, the healthcare system is facing increasing rates of chronic diseases. Urbanisation is expected to further raise the level of CVD risk factors due to adoption of new dietary habits, lack of physical activity and stress of work conditions in urban areas.
62% of Tunisian men smoke (approximately 1% of women)
52% of individuals engage in less than 30 minutes of physical activity per day (multi-country study)
28% of individuals are obese
Smoking prevalence among physicians and teachers in schools outweighs that of regular smokers
in the general population of Tunisia.
Youth (aged 13-19)
11.1% of boys and 16.1% of girls are overweight; 2.8% of boys and 3.7% of girls are obese
9% of boys and girls have high blood pressure
15% of boys and 1% of girls smoke
Chronic disease
Hypertension
Nearly 30% of the adult urban population suffers from hypertension
Diabetes
10.2% of the adult population have diabetes