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General Forum: Health | | Osteoarthritis is India’s No. 1 ailment: Study & Diabetes Is Ranked Fourth | |
| If you thought diabetes was the most prevalent ailment affecting Indians, you could be wrong. While much has been said about the high incidence of diabetes, HIV and cancer in India, a recent study suggests that osteoarthritis beats them all to claim the No. 1 spot among ailments in the country.
Osteoarthritis is a condition in which the cartilage that acts as a cushion between bones in joints begins to wear out, causing inflammation and pain in joints, thereby restricting movement. Osteoarthritis is also known as degenerative arthritis or degenerative joint disease.
The high incidence of osteoarthritis in India is the result of its prevalence among women who fall victim to it. Menopausal women are especially prone to it. The disease is, however, not restricted to women, although diabetes and hypertension remain the most prevalent ailments among men.
Shockingly, the study — conducted by TNS and called TNS Arogya — found that in the age group 25-35 years, osteoarthritis figures as the second most prevalent disease after diabetes. It also found that while there is high incidence of osteoarthritis, awareness about the disease is very low compared with awareness about diseases like diabetes, HIV and cancer.
Says Dr Shishir Rastogi, professor, orthopaedics, at AIIMS: ‘‘There are many reasons for the high prevalence of osteoarthritis in India. Genetic is the strongest reason which makes us more predisposed to it. Several other factors like the popular squatting position in India, rising obesity, sedentary lifestyle and poor diet are responsible for its high incidence.’’
Doctors claim that not only is there a lack of awareness about the disease, it is also often confused with osteoporosis. Says Dr S K S Marya, director, orthopaedics, Max Healthcare: ‘‘Osteoporosis and osteoarthritis are both common in India. But they are two different diseases. In many people, both are seen together. While osteoporosis affects the bones, osteoarthritis impacts the joints. The poor musculature of Indians and rising obesity are primarily responsible for the high numbers hit by osteoarthritis.’’
There are two kinds of osteoarthritis — primary and secondary. While primary osteoarthritis is a result of old age, secondary osteoarthritis is a result of a disease or an injury which, in turn, leads to it. ‘‘The best way to keep osteoarthritis under check is to exercise regularly, avoid squatting and crosslegged positions, maintain a healthy diet and keep weight in control. High uric acid is also likely to make you more susceptible to osteoarthritis,’’ says Dr Naveen Talwar, consultant orthopaedic surgeon, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital.
Awareness about bone ailments very low: Study
New Delhi: A study conducted by TNS called TNS Arogya has found that in the age group 25-35 years, osteoarthritis figures as the second most prevalent disease after diabetes.
It further claims that other common ailments in both sexes, cutting across age groups, are spondylosis and adult asthma. Women also have a high incidence of slipped disk and rheumatoid arthritis. Migraine seems to be almost exclusively a woman’s ailment, with very low prevalence among men.
In general, prevalence of various ailments was higher among women. But certain diseases like hepatitis-B, end-stage renal disease and oral cancer mostly affect males, with comparatively low incidence among women.
Hypothyroidism, on the other hand, is an exclusively female ailment. A surprise finding is that depression, seen more as a woman’s ailment, is widely prevalent across gender and age groups.
When it comes to awareness about ailments, diabetes tops the list followed by HIV and various cancers, definitely heartening news for those involved in awareness campaigns for HIV and breast cancer. Yet, what is worrying is the rather low awareness about widely prevalent bone ailments, migraine disorders, depression and hypothyroidism.
No matter what the disease, the highest level of awareness is among people in the east — confirming their general reputation of being more preoccupied with their bodily well-being than people from elsewhere. The least awareness about most diseases is in the west, followed by the north and the south in that order.
The survey also revealed that hospitalisation rates were higher among women (3.7%) than men (2.4%), but this was almost entirely because of child birth-related hospitalisation. However, even apart from child birth, the reasons for hospitalisation among men and women are quite different. Among men, for instance, 38% of those hospitalised in the last year were for surgery. The corresponding figure for women — after adjusting for child birth — was 32%. This might explain why the average expenditure on hospitalisation for women was a little over Rs 29,000, while that for men was closer to Rs 43,000.
Courtesy: TOI, NEW DELHI
Posted by: Mr. M Kumar N At: 6, Sep 2007 1:08:45 PM IST
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