‘Lifestyle diseases preying on lower strata’

Mumbai: Lifestyle diseases are not only affecting people from the elite class, but also those from lower strata, according to the Brihanmumbai Munic-ipal Corporation’s (BMC) survey, which studied 72.61 lakh patients in a span of two years. The survey was carried out in major civic hospitals, suburban hospitals and municipal dispensaries between October 2015 and September 2017.

It was conducted jointly by civic health department and community medicine department (CMD) of Sion Hospital. A team of 51 doctors headed by CMD chief Dr Seema Bansode-Gokhe was working on the project.

“The survey was carried out with an aim to decide future course of action in health and medical services provided by the BMC. It will also help in determining the future manpower, medicinal stock in civic hospitals,”
said Dr Bansode-Gokhe.

According to the survey report, the BMC studied 5.78 lakh patients, who visited major four civic hospitals. Of them, 31 per cent patients in major civic hospitals were found suffering from psychiatric disorders, followed by diabetes (23 per cent of patients) and hypertension (22 per cent)  and heart ailments (7.49 per cent).

Even among patients at 15 suburban hospitals, lifestyle diseases accounted for the lion’s share of ailments. Among 5.26 lakh patients treated during the two-year period in these hospitals, 31 per cent were of fever of unknown origin (FUO). However, diabetes (19.84  per cent), hypertension (16 per cent) and psychiatric disorder (8.24 per cent) constituted a major part of them.