W o r l d H e a l t h D a y
7 April 2009
7 April 2009
On this year's World Health Day, let us focus on addressing issues that can improve health status of women. A wide array of socio-economic, cultural and gender-based inequalities continue to aggravate risk for women.
The latest effort in this direction was a symposium on 'nutrition in women' held in New Delhi . Its main aim was to draw attention to the very pertinent observations of a 'Multi Centric Study on Nutrition in Women', conducted jointly by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) of Government of India and the Diabetes Foundation of India (DFI), and ably coordinated by All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi . The symposium was followed by a consensus conference on 'Indian Diets for Prevention of Obesity and Related Disorders'.
It is high time we took a serious note of the health disorders in women arising due to age old dietary habits, coupled with changing life styles and static mindsets. It is indeed a congratulatory effort on the part of DST to conduct a country wide, 3 year long multi centric study (2005 – 2008) on nutrition related non communicable diseases in women over 35 years of age. The objective of the study was to prepare a health/nutrition profile for women by (i) identifying the problems related to non communicable diseases like diabetes, hypertension, obesity and high cholesterol, (ii) developing region specific and cost effective strategies for primary prevention and management of these diseases.
The study, the first of its kind, was conducted in 9 sites, which included rural as well as urban areas, and covered all the four regions of the country (north, south, east and west). 4621 willing, women respondents in the age group of 35 to 70 years were targetted for this study. Out of these, 2008 women were from urban areas and 2613 from the rural segment. Some startling revelations, (albeit expected) regarding women's health were made on the basis of the information gleaned and clinical tests conducted during the course of the study. It was found that
(ii) About 14.5% of the urban women suffered from diabetes, as compared to 14.5% of their rural sisters.
(iii) Hypertension was strikingly high, with about 50% of the urban women and 33% of the rural women suffering from it.
(iv) High cholesterol levels were more predominant in urban women (25%) as compared to rural women (13%).
(v) Prevalence of anemia was as high as 80% in rural areas and somewhat better (25%) in urban regions.
Of course, there were a lot of regional variations/imbalances, with the women folk of Ballabhgarh (a rural site in Haryana) being overall healthier than others and the respondents from the urban site of Kochi coming at the bottom of the ladder.
More importantly, 96% of the urban women and 76% of the rural women were found to suffer from at least one cardiovascular risk factor.
One major contributory factor for this poor health scenario could be the sedentary life style of 48% of the urban and 44% of the rural womenfolk, coupled with a faulty and imbalanced diet.
Another important point brought out by this study was that tobacco consumption was very high at 41% amongst rural women and 21% in urban areas.
The message conveyed by the study is very clear. There is a heavy burden of Multi Risk Factors of metabolic syndrome leading to non communicable disorders amongst the middle aged and elderly women in the urban as well as rural areas. The high prevalence of obesity, hypertension, diabetes and high cholesterol levels in these women calls for sincere and cost effective interventions.
Till now, very little attention has been paid by the health agencies on prevention of these diseases in this segment of the Indian population. As it is, a woman's health has always been of little consequence in our society. She is traditionally supposed to be the last to have a meal in the family and the first to neglect her health in the zeal to keep others fit and fine. This gender disparity is more pronounced in women who are above 35 years of age. They are taken more for granted by the family (their reproductive functions being almost over by then) and also by themselves (as health and well being of their children is of greater priority to them). Coupled with this, are the immense physiological changes which they undergo during this period of life.
So it becomes imperative that women be specifically targeted with health education and be motivated to practice healthy dietary and life style habits.
According to experts, intake of Trans fatty acids, coming from hydrogenated fat, should be avoided almost completely. Mustard oil, taken along with safflower/sunflower/soybean oil, seems to be the safest amongst all other available cooking medium (though not one of the existing cooking oils is ideal). But Dr Anoop Misra, of Fortis Hospital , cautioned that one should not consume more than half kilogram of oil in a month.
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