Counselling Before Crisis: Rethinking Women’s Non-Communicable Disease Prevention in Jordan
1
Department of Statistics and Data Science, California State University, East Bay., Hayward, United States
2
Department of Health Science, California State University, Long Beach, Long Beach, United States
Popul. Med. 2026;8(Supplement Supplement 1):
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Across the Eastern Mediterranean, women increasingly live—and die—with diseases once considered illnesses of middle-aged men. In Jordan, young women now shoulder rising risks of diabetes, hypertension, and obesity, often without access to early preventive care. This study examined whether receiving preventive counselling was associated with lower odds of four biological NCD risks among women aged 18–49 years.
METHODS:
Using the nationally representative WHO STEPS 2019 survey (n = 5 713), we applied weighted descriptive statistics and multivariable Firth logistic regression models in Stata 18 and R 4.3. Models adjusted for age, education, marital status, region, nationality, and smoking. Sensitivity analyses tested alternative counselling definitions and the exclusion of Syrian participants.
RESULTS:
Preventive counselling was linked with markedly lower odds of hypertension (AOR 0.50, 95 % CI 0.37–0.69, p < 0.001), diabetes (0.27, 0.13–0.54, p < 0.001), and dyslipidaemia (0.47, 0.27–0.80, p = 0.006), and a non-significant protective trend for obesity (0.80, 0.59–1.09). Each additional year of age increased odds by 5–11 %. Counselled women had higher mean BMI (34.7 vs 27.9) and fasting glucose (91.1 vs 79.2 mg/dL), indicating risk-targeted rather than random counselling. Regional effects were small and non-significant.
CONCLUSIONS:
In Jordan, preventive counselling is working—but arriving too late. Integrating early, structured counselling within primary care could shift women’s NCD trajectories from crisis management to prevention, advancing gender-responsive health policy across the region.
Across the Eastern Mediterranean, women increasingly live—and die—with diseases once considered illnesses of middle-aged men. In Jordan, young women now shoulder rising risks of diabetes, hypertension, and obesity, often without access to early preventive care. This study examined whether receiving preventive counselling was associated with lower odds of four biological NCD risks among women aged 18–49 years.
METHODS:
Using the nationally representative WHO STEPS 2019 survey (n = 5 713), we applied weighted descriptive statistics and multivariable Firth logistic regression models in Stata 18 and R 4.3. Models adjusted for age, education, marital status, region, nationality, and smoking. Sensitivity analyses tested alternative counselling definitions and the exclusion of Syrian participants.
RESULTS:
Preventive counselling was linked with markedly lower odds of hypertension (AOR 0.50, 95 % CI 0.37–0.69, p < 0.001), diabetes (0.27, 0.13–0.54, p < 0.001), and dyslipidaemia (0.47, 0.27–0.80, p = 0.006), and a non-significant protective trend for obesity (0.80, 0.59–1.09). Each additional year of age increased odds by 5–11 %. Counselled women had higher mean BMI (34.7 vs 27.9) and fasting glucose (91.1 vs 79.2 mg/dL), indicating risk-targeted rather than random counselling. Regional effects were small and non-significant.
CONCLUSIONS:
In Jordan, preventive counselling is working—but arriving too late. Integrating early, structured counselling within primary care could shift women’s NCD trajectories from crisis management to prevention, advancing gender-responsive health policy across the region.
| eISSN: | 2654-1459 |
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