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Background: There is limited epidemiological data on chronic diseases in the Middle East, and obtaining such data on a large scale and in a standardised manner is challenging. The objective of the SNAPSHOT program was to assess quality of life and to estimate the prevalence and burden of multiple diseases in the adult general population of five Middle Eastern countries using an omnibus approach.

Methods: Large random samples from the general populations of Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates were interviewed by telephone. Validated questionnaires were administered via a computer-assisted personal interviewing system to identify subjects fulfilling criteria for one of the four diseases of interest (asthma, allergic rhinitis, bipolar disorder and benign prostatic hyperplasia) and the three level EuroQoL EQ-5D questionnaire (EQ-5D-3L) administered to collect quality of life data. Respondents who screened positively for a disease of interest were invited to answer further questions on disease burden and healthcare resource utilisation.

Results: Overall, 33,486 subjects completed the screening questionnaire and 27,882 completed the EQ-5D-3L. At least one of the four diseases was identified in 4,418 (13.2%) of subjects. The mean EQ-5D-3L utility value was 0.89±0.21. It was significantly different among countries (Turkey: 0.84±0.24, Egypt: 0.88±0.23; Saudi Arabia: 0.93±0.16; Kuwait: 0.94±0.16; United Arab Emirates: 0.96±0.13), among age groups (18-34: 0.91±0.19; 35-49: 0.90±0.20; ≥50: 0.85±0.25), between genders (men: 0.92±0.18; women: 0.86±0.24), and significantly lower in subjects who screened positive for any of the four diseases (p <0.0001 for all comparisons; Kruskal-Wallis test).

Conclusions: This program emphasises the benefit of an omnibus approach to collecting population data for multiple diseases in multiple countries. The program also generated reference values for the EQ-5D-3L in the Middle East for the first time. Such programs respond to a need for data to support informed decision-making by healthcare authorities in the region.