Lifestyle diseases leave Kerala in doldrums
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Kochi: Kerala groans under increasing cases of people affected by lifestyle diseases, making the southern state the national topper in a spectrum diseases.
Homing in on the seriousness of the issue, the state department of health has started studying the menace.
Earlier, the national family health survey found 38 percent people as suffering from hypertension, and 24 percent as facing diabetes.
Another study by Achuthamenon Centre for health at Sri Chithira Institute found hypertension in one in three and diabetes in one in five.
Kerala has been pegged at third nationally in cerebrovascular accident (stroke) among people aged below forty, and has most number of dialysis units in the nation as well.
Given this shocking health situation, the State health department for the first time has stepped into study it.
The study titled, “Kiran” will be conducted among 10 lakh people in 4000 wards in fourteen districts of the state. The project has already been flagged off in Kollam, Kasargod, and Thiruvananthapuram.
The survey is aimed at collecting authentic data about consumption of oil, vegetables, meat, alcoholism, and physical exercise, the project’s nodal officer Dr. Bipin Gopal told Madhyamam.
