Survey Reveals Shocking National Health Statistics

Report released by the Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan states that 98.4% of adults in India have an inadequate consumption of fruits and vegetables.

While the recommended number of servings of fruits and vegetables is at least five, the survey found that the mean serving of fruits and/or vegetables consumed in a day was 1.7.

The National Non-communicable Disease Monitoring Survey (NNMS) was carried out between 2017 and 2018. It included responses from 10,659 adults (18-69 years) and 1,402 adolescents (15-17 years) belonging to 6,000 urban and 6,000 rural households.

Notable findings of the survey are -

More than two in five adults (41.3%) and one in four adolescents (25.2%) are insufficiently physically active.

More than one in every four adults (26.1%) were overweight and 6.2% were obese. 6.2 per cent adolescents were overweight and 1.8% were obese.

Almost three out of ten adults (28.5%) had raised blood pressure, especially in urban areas.

9.3 per cent had raised blood glucose - 14.4% in urban areas and 6.9% in rural areas.

Average daily intake of salt was 8 gms.

Two in five adults had three or more risk factors for non-communicable diseases (NCDs).

One in every three adults and more than one-fourth proportion of surveyed men used tobacco in any form and consumed alcohol.

Only 1.7% of surveyed population aged 30-69 (men and women) years had ever undergone screening for oral cancer.

17.0% respondents were in stage-1 hypertension and 7.9% were in stage-2 hypertension.

48.3% adolescents had skipped breakfast on at least one day in the past 30 days.

Only 10.5% of all adults were engaged in doing any form of voluntary physical activity during recreational time, for urban areas 14.8% and rural areas 8.3% - men 17.2% and women 3.4%.

25.2% adolescents did not meet the WHO recommended levels of physical activity.

The Health Minister states that “The country is facing epidemiologic transition towards NCD (non-communicable diseases) and their occurrence in younger age groups among the poorer sections of the society remains a matter of concern demanding greater attention.”

Recommendations included setting up a national NCD surveillance department/unit that would periodically gather, analyze and report timely data for interventions and actions. The development of a national NCD research plan for at least ten years was also stressed to guide research and funding priorities to fill the knowledge and operational gaps in the policies and program requirements.

Source-Medindia