# Health quality management practises for cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and obesity care in the UAE: a scoping review

## TL;DR

This review maps health quality management practices for cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and obesity in the UAE, highlighting gaps and opportunities for improvement.

## Contribution

The study uniquely analyzes UAE-based HQM practices for NCDs through established health quality frameworks.

## Key findings

- Observational studies on NCDs in the UAE are common, with a focus on CVD and diabetes in urban areas.
- Interventions emphasize lifestyle changes but face methodological limitations like small sample sizes and short durations.
- Policy documents focus on structure and process, with limited attention to outcomes and equity in HQM.

## Abstract

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs), such as cardiovascular diseases (CVD), diabetes, and obesity, are increasingly prevalent in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), driven by lifestyle changes and demographic shifts. This review maps the current research landscape on health quality management (HQM) practises for the three NCDs in the UAE, uniquely analysed through health quality frameworks.

A scoping review of UAE-based studies and grey literature on HQM for the three NCDs (2015–2025), following the Arksey and O’Malley framework and in alignment with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines, was conducted. A subsequent focused two-dimensional analysis of interventional studies assessed health quality improvement efforts, incorporating guideline documents and reports for policy context. Findings were analysed using the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) six quality domains and the Donabedian model (structure, process, outcomes).

Of the identified 549 relevant records, observational studies were predominant, with the majority conducted in larger urban Emirates and focusing on CVD and diabetes. The interventional studies and grey literature documents in the subset analysis largely addressed the effectiveness domain of HQM. Most interventions focused on lifestyle modification through education, digital tools, and multidisciplinary support, with modest clinical improvements observed in most studies. However, study designs were often limited by small sample sizes, the lack of control groups, short durations, and methodological variability. Policy documents emphasised structure and process with limited focus on outcome monitoring.

Although intervention research addressing NCDs in the UAE shows promise, it remains methodologically limited and inconsistently distributed across the six HQM domains, with a heavy emphasis on effectiveness and a relative underrepresentation of equity, efficiency, and timeliness, as noted in the reviewed literature. There is a pressing need to implement standardised quality indicators addressing all HQM domains, strengthen cross-sector collaboration, and integrate patient perspectives to translate research progress into equitable, sustainable improvements in NCD care. By integrating health quality frameworks, this review provides a foundation for strengthening NCD care standards in the UAE.