Some Jordanian news sites published a story headlined "Two Million Jordanians Are Obese," saying that obesity stands at 66%. The Jordanian Media Credibility Monitor "AKEED" found out that this rate is incorrect, according to what was stated by Dr. Ayoub Sayaydeh, director of non-communicable diseases at the Ministry of Health, who told AKEED that it was only 35%.

The news story states the following: "Recent statistics by the Ministry of Health indicate that around 66% of Jordanians are obese, which means that more than 2 million adults are likely to develop diabetes, hypertension, and high levels of fat and cholesterol."

Based on the standards applied by AKEED in verifying the content produced by Jordanian media outlets, the following observations can be made:

First: The story contains inaccurate rates. The figure in the headline differs from the one in the body of the story. Jordan"s population is 9.33 million, including 6.613 million Jordanians. Therefore, 66% equals 4.36580 million citizens, and not 2 million. This reveals errors in estimation if we calculate Jordanians only. If the rate is calculated for all residents on Jordanian soil, the figure will be 6.157800 million, which equals 66%.

Second: There are some misconceptions, which were explained by Dr. Ayoub Sayaydeh, director of non-communicable diseases at the Ministry of Health. These have to do with the difference between overweight and obesity based on the Body Mass Index (BMI), which measures weight to height to categorize overweight and obesity in the case of adults who are 18 years old and above by dividing the weight of a person in kilograms by the square of height in meters (kg/m2). Sayaydeh pointed out that weight is considered over if the BMI is greater than 25 or equal to 29. In the case of obesity, the BMI should be greater than or equal to 30.  

He stressed that accuracy and objectivity require distinguishing between the two terms and not confusing concepts. He noted that some media outlets use eye-catching headlines without giving priority to accuracy. This plays a role in reporting inaccurate information to the public.

Third: The media outlets that published the story did not indicate the date of these statistics or this study. According to Sayaydeh, the last national study implemented by the Ministry of Health on obesity and overweight was in 2007. He indicated that the Ministry of Health was seeking to obtain financing to conduct a new study soon. Consequently, republishing old information as new undermines objectivity, accuracy, and credibility.

Fourth: The figures published in this story do not agree with the results of a study announced by Dr. Kamel Ajlouni, president of the National Center for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Genetics, on 27 December 2016, when he said that "around 4 million people out of the total population of 9.55 million have obesity."

Ajlouni noted at the time that obesity rates among adult Jordanian men and women (25 years and above) had reached 43% and 22% of their normal weight respectively, while the average waist circumference was 53% above the normal level. He indicated that obesity-related diseases "increase among the poor and uneducated," compared with "the educated and rich" at an average of 23% for the educated and rich and 32% for the poor and illiterate.

Fifth: When a journalist attributes information and figures to recent statistics by the Ministry of Health, the question remains: Has this information, which includes statistics, been announced at a news conference or workshop or in exclusive statements, a press release, on the website of the Ministry of Health, etc? It is unclear, and this is against the standards of accuracy and clarity.

Sixth: By monitoring this story, it turned out that one site only attributed the news to one of its correspondents, while the other sites did not refer to the source and how the information was obtained although they published it under different headlines. In some cases, it was republished after doing some editing.

The above shows that some sites copy content from other sites without heeding the standards and ethics of the profession, including attributing content to its original sources