Journal of Community Medicine & Health Education
Open Access

Research Article

Prevalence and Risk Factors Associated with Various Types of Diseases in Sikkim

Nagendra Thakur^1* Ishfaq Nabi Najar¹ Swati Sachdeva²

¹Department of Microbiology, School of Life Sciences, Sikkim University, Sikkim, India

²Department of Social Systems and Anthropology, School of Social Sciences, Sikkim University, Sikkim, India

*Corresponding Author:

Nagendra Thakur
Department of Microbiology, School of Life Sciences
Sikkim University, Gangtok 737102, Sikkim, India
Tel: 03592-232085
Fax: 03592-232085
E-mail: nagendra.thakur@gmail.com

Received date: July 12, 2013; Accepted date: October 28, 2013; Published date: October 30, 2013

Citation: Thakur N, Najar IN, Sachdeva S (2013) Prevalence and Risk Factors Associated with Various Types of Diseases in Sikkim. J Community Med Health Educ 3:245. doi: 10.4172/2161-0711.1000245

Copyright: © 2013 Thakur N, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Health as one of the fundamental values is the foundation for the quality of human life, the welfare of one’s family, and also of society as a whole. A healthy society is the substance for a productive and efficient economy and the development of the state. Biological, psycho-emotional, social, economic, environmental, as well as lifestyle factors influence the health of each individual and therefore, the public health. People with a quality education, stable employment, safe homes and neighbourhoods and access to high quality preventive services tend to be healthier throughout their lives and live longer. When organizations, whether they are governmental, private, or non-profit succeed in meeting these basic needs, people are more likely to exercise, eat healthy foods and seek preventive health services. Diseases (microbial and chronic) are increasing in global prevalence and seriously threaten developing nations’ including India’s ability to improve the health of their populations. The rise of lifestyle-related chronic disease in poor countries is the result of a complex constellation of social, economic, and behavioural factors. Diseases (e.g., cardiovascular diseases, mental health disorders, diabetes, and cancer) and injuries are the leading causes of death and disability in India and it is ventured to have pronounced increases in their contribution to the burden of disease during the next 25 years. These rights, opportunities and factors have been taken as the basis in the drafting of this policy planning document. A survey and study on the various diseases prevailing in Sikkim was done. The main objective of the study was to check the prevalence and risk factors associated with various types of diseases in Sikkim and the design was based on random selection among 2000 individuals from different areas of Sikkim. Prevalence of diseases with respect to gender, age group and population type was evaluated. Also the various risk factors viz diet type, physical activity, water consumed and type of addictions was assessed for every disease concerned. The data was collected and analyzed statistically. Diseases considered are more or less equally prevalent in both the sexes. The rural populations are more affected as per the results obtained. The 15-25 years old and >65 years old age groups showed higher occurrence of most disease and therefore it is matter of concern. It was also found that the prevalence of respiratory disease, gastrointestinal diseases, eye/ear, dermal and general (non-microbial) diseases are high. Although, all the risk factors considered in this study affect all the diseases in some or other way, however, it was shown that the type of addictions viz alcohol consumption, smoking and recreational drug use poses the greater risk to the population of Sikkim especially young generation which is indulged in such activities the most, this may be due to the impact of rapidly embracing western lifestyles. Other risk factors like diet, water consumed and physical activity also augments the occurrence of relative diseases significantly and thus might be considered as the risk factors for various diseases considered in Sikkim. Keeping all this in view, for the better health and hygiene, effective prevention and control measurements (by strengthen social and policy frameworks) should be implemented or the already implemented measures should be substantially increased.

Keywords