The Minister of State (Health and Family Welfare), Anupriya Patel informed about the lifestyle diseases in India in a written reply answer to the question in Lok Sabha.
The factors that are responsible for the increase in “Lifestyle Diseases” are unhealthy diet, lack of physical activity,excessive consumption of alcohol, tobacco use, overweight, obesity; etc.
The minister informed about the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and other institutes that are conducting a study, namely, “ICMR-INDIAB,” including all the States and Union Territories – both urban and rural population for detecting the exact number of Diabetic patients. So far, 15 States have been covered, and it is found that the frequency of diabetes varies from 4.3% in Bihar to 13.6% in Chandigarh.
A report published by the International Diabetes Federation says a number of people with diabetes (20-79 years) in the Urban setting of India amounted to about 30.5 million, in 2013.
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), states that the studies conducted in various regions of the country indicate that the prevalence of coronary heart disease (CHD) is between 8-10 percent in urban and 3 to 4 percent in rural India.
According to ICMR, the estimated prevalence of cancer cases in India during 2013, 2014 and 2015 are 2934314, 3016628, and 3101467, respectively.
In the entire country, the scientific estimation of the number of patients of Chronic Kidney Diseases (CKD) has not yet been carried out. But in some of the small population-based studies, it was found out to be in 0.79% in North India and 0.16% in South India.
Bengaluru’s National Center for Disease Informatics and Research (NCDIR), is running Hospital and Population-based Cancer Registries. As informed by ICMR, some studies have been conducted on NCDs. A special study is carried out by ICMR on the Burden of Non-Communicable Diseases and Associated Risk Factors for India (BOD-NCD).
Under the National Health Mission (NHM), financial and technical support is provided to the States and Union Territories to strengthen their health care systems, including setting up of and upgrading the public health facilities, based on the requirements posed by the States/UTs in their Programme Implementation Plans (PIPs).
The government of India is also implementing the National Programme for Prevention and Control of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases and Stroke (NPCDCS) for the interventions up to District level under the National Health Mission.
Further, for early diagnosis, population-oriented screening of common NCDs viz. Diabetes, Hypertension and Common cancers (Oral, Breast, Cervical) are initiated under NHM, utilizing the services of the Frontline-workers and Health-workers under the existing Primary Healthcare System. However, this process will also help in creating awareness about the risk factors of common NCDs.
The government of India is also assisting the States to set up/ establish State Cancer Institute (SCI) and Tertiary Care Cancer Centers (TCCCs) in different parts of the country.
Under Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY), 6 new AIIMS branches have been set up and the upgradation of the identified medical colleges has been undertaken, which will also improve the healthcare facilities.