Rufaida’s project is a scientific study on the impact of the month of Ramadan on women’s dietary behavior and health. We asked one of the researchers, Dr. Sarah Ahnash, how they wanted to find out.
Why are you conducting research on the impact of Ramadan?
“Most people think that Ramadan is just fasting between sunrise and sunset, but it is much more than that. It is also a spiritual month in which people from the Muslim community come together and reflect on life. We want to study the impact of all those aspects.
“More than a quarter of the world's population is Muslim. This means that a large portion of the world's population participates in the month of Ramadan, which is important for research. Through our project we want to encourage people to be open to different types of research. Moreover, we would like to emphasize that Ramadan is an experience A beautiful religious culture that can go hand in hand with scientific and social research.
Why do you focus on women?
“Project Rufaidah is a subsidiary of Project Esala, a large-scale citizen science project where we are mapping the female microbiome and female health.”
In addition, women are still not adequately included in scientific studies. This certainly applies to Muslim women, who participate in clinical studies even less than other women. We think it's very important to fill this gap in science a little more.
Isala is always guided by questions asked in the community. There are many Muslim women in our research team who participate in Ramadan, including myself. We have been wondering for some time what Ramadan does to our mental and physical health. Since we had a laboratory and scientists, we decided to investigate the matter ourselves.
Participants receive three questionnaires before the beginning of Ramadan, four questionnaires during Ramadan, and three questionnaires after Ramadan. What specifically do you want to know?
“The questions are relatively broad. It's about lifestyle, mental health and environmental factors, but it's also about whether or not they have stress and time to themselves, about the nutrition that women consume and whether that varies before, during and after Ramadan.”
“We are interested in the impact of Ramadan on all of those factors. Does the experience of fasting for a month, spirituality and connection have an impact and is this a lasting impact? Do we see people eating healthier and finding more peace? And will it stay that way?”
What do you want to do based on the results?
“The next step is to take physical samples and look at the physical aspects of Ramadan on the micro tree, on the metabolites in the body, etc.”
Have similar studies been done before?
“There have been studies on intermittent fasting before, but Ramadan is different because the spiritual aspects and coming together are very important as well. The few studies on the impact of Ramadan have been relatively small in size, and often have not included women or not enough of them.”
In addition, previous studies have looked at the effect of fasting on the intestinal microbiome but not on the vaginal microbiome or the effect of the fact that women should not fast on menstrual days during Ramadan. We also want to investigate the impact of this.
How many women are already registered?
“We already have 250 participants, but women can still register. We want to distribute the questionnaires as much as possible and have as many women complete them as possible, so that we get a complete picture of women’s health and diet before, during and after Ramadan.
Would you also like to participate in the project? You can register on isala.be
