'Indian workforce unhealthy'

21 May 2008, 0116 hrs IST,Kounteya Sinha,TNN

NEW DELHI: All work and no play is making Indian professionals unhealthy. A study conducted by the World Health Organisation to gauge the health of India's workforce has made some startling revelations.

Almost 47% of the workforce in Indian industries, especially in urban areas, were found to be overweight while around 27% were suffering from hypertension. Around 10% of those surveyed were also found to be diabetic.

The survey, which looked at the health of 35,000 employees and their family members, aged 10-69 years in 10 different industries, and 20,000 randomly selected individuals, found workers at greater risk of developing chronic diseases like heart attack, stroke and cancer.

Most of those who were found to be diabetic and hypertensive were, however, from highly urbanised areas.

The report, 'Preventing Communicable Diseases in the Workplace through Diet and Physical Activity,' which has also predicted that India would incur an accumulated loss of $236.6 billion by 2015 due to unhealthy lifestyle and a faulty diet leading to chronic diseases, was launched at the World Health Assembly in Geneva on Monday.

Predicting an income loss of $54 billion in 2015 for Indians due to their unhealthy lifestyle, the report asks workplaces to come to the fore in making employees aware of their health and recommends imparting health education for preventing CVDs. WHO says that as populations age in middle and low income countries over the next 25 years, the proportions of deaths due to non-communicable diseases will rise significantly.

According to WHO, the global burden of disease is already shifting from infectious diseases to non-communicable diseases. In India, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer, stroke and chronic lung diseases have already become major public health problems.

According to the health ministry’s estimates, about 10% of adults suffer from hypertension. The number of deaths due to Ischemic heart diseases in India is projected to increase from 1.2 million in 1990 to 1.6 million by 2000, and to 2 million by 2010.

More than six million people have coronary artery disease and about five million people have rheumatic heart disease. Around 2 lakh babies are born every year with some form of congenital cardiothoracic defect. With the aging population, degenerative diseases are also increasing.

India also has largest number of diabetics in the world — 25 to 30 million. India is projected to have more than 37 million diabetics in 2010 and more than 57 million in 2025.

The WHO study focused on changing unhealthy behaviour and addressed physical activity, blood pressure, intake of fruits and vegetables, diabetes, BMI and heart-healthy life, using cognitive theory and the health belief model.

Source: The Times of India