With 2015 now behind us, we were curious to see what healthcare terms residents of the UAE searched for when it came to their medical insurance policies.
Our analytics team analyzed over 10,000 user events from our Bayzat Benefits platform to reveal the most popular searches made by UAE health insurance policyholders.
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Of the top 50 searches on Bayzat Benefits, 48% of users were searching for a hospital or medical facility in their direct billing network, while 34% were searching for a symptom using our Get Care feature.
Physiotherapy tops the list
Physiotherapy was the most searched word followed by related terms such as ‘back pain’ and ‘acupuncture’. The main reason for this could be the prevalence of obesity and unhealthy lifestyle habits such as sitting for long hours throughout the workday.
As stated by a report from the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, the obesity rate in the UAE is double the world average – more than 66% of men and 60% of women in the UAE are overweight or obese!
Physiotherapists play a pivotal role in working to trim expanding waistlines. As experts in physical activity, weight management, heart disease and diabetes prevention, physiotherapists can identify exercise strategies for overweight people and co-ordinate structured programs to increase physical activity and bring about achievable lifestyle changes.
The Dubai Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation Centre launched a weight loss program in 2015. The main reason for this stated Dubai PR Network was that weight loss programs would directly lead to better physiotherapy treatment response. As per Dr Amal Al Shamlan, director of DPRC, “The more weight that’s on a joint, the more stressed the joint becomes, and the more likely it will wear down and be damaged. Weight plays an important role in joint stress, so when people are obese, it puts stress on their joints, especially their weight-bearing joints, like the knees and the hips. A majority of our overweight and obese patients experience knee and back pain or have osteoarthritis.”
Stomach pain follows
Next in the list of keyword concentration is “stomach pain”. There is a surge in stomach related ailments in the month of Ramadan in the UAE. Abdominal distension, kidney problems, constipation and vomiting are some of the chief complaints described by emergency rooms and clinics in the holy month. This usually happens because people are dehydrated, eat too fast and overeat in short periods of time.
The other chief causes of stomach pain include gastroenteritis, kidney stones, gall bladder stones, pancreatitis, ulcers, thyroid, stress, and appendicitis, side effects of medications or lactose/gluten intolerance. Most of these are again lifestyle related aches and pains linked to faulty eating habits, exacerbated by the consumption of fast food.
Determining dental solutions
‘Dental’, ‘Cavity’, ‘Wisdom Teeth’, ‘Toothache’ and ‘Dentist’ are some popular searches which make up around 8% of the total keywords searched. Dental health is something most take for granted and do not undergo treatment for until it becomes painful!
At the moment, the UAE is witnessing a ‘growing epidemic of tooth loss. More than half the population is losing teeth due to gum diseases. Causes for this include insufficient awareness when it comes to dental hygiene, sugary diets as well as smoking.
Dental healthcare is expensive and, while not included in many health insurance plans, there are actually quite a few cost-effective health insurance policies in the UAE with dental cover.
The more comprehensive insurance plans include routine dental treatment as well as orthodontics up to certain limits. More commonly, insurance companies cover the following: x-rays, scaling and polishing, dental consultations and medications, amalgam and composite fillings, simple extractions, surgical extractions and root canal treatment.
Where UAE residents go for treatment
Bayzat Benefits makes it easy for medical insurance policyholders to find facilities in their direct billing network. It was no surprise that thousands of searches were made in 2015 by users looking for hospitals or clinics in their direct billing network. So what were the most popular hospitals in the UAE?
Our analysis sheds light on what customers really care about. More importantly, with Bayzat Benefits, policyholders can now really understand their medical benefits and use their health insurance intuitively to find how, when and where they are covered. With the Dubai Health Insurance Law nearing its final deadline, we’re very excited about helping more UAE residents compare, buy and use their health insurance in 2016.
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