Apollo Hospitals’ “Health of Nation 2022” report, released on the eve of World Health Day, has shown wide prevalence of non-communicable diseases (NCD).
The data particularly showed alarming prevalence of NCD among employees of corporate sector with 48% having out-of-range cholesterol readings and 28% having hypertension.
The hospital group said that the report was based on anonymised data collected in 2021 from lab values, medical history-based data analysis, surveys and artificial intelligence enabled prediction models for cohort sizes ranging up to 3.8 lakh. The data on corporate sector was based on 35,000 health checks done with corporates in 2021.
The data showed a prevalence of hypertension of 8.2%, diabetes of 7% and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD) and asthma of 2%. All three had slightly increased prevalence among urban population than rural population. While northern and eastern States had a high prevalence of hypertension, southern and eastern States had a high prevalence of diabetes, the report showed.
The report showed that people of younger age group were increasingly being diagnosed with NCDs. The data showed that even moderate weight gain in women resulted in a higher chance of them developing diabetes.
The data from corporate sector showed that the prevalence of NCDs saw a significant increase in 2021 compared to previous years, possibly due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Prathap C. Reddy, chairman, Apollo Hospitals Group, said that for a country with a population of 1.2 billion, such numbers will increase the burden of disease and affect the economic growth. He said that every one should start giving importance towards leading a healthy lifestyle and think of spending on health as an investment and not as an expenditure.
Sangita Reddy, joint managing director, Apollo Hospitals Group, said the insights will help in the use of technology to gain an upper hand in ensuring a healthy workforce. “Combined with our pioneering experience of 38 years, we have at our disposal new technologies based on artificial intelligence and machine learning for predicting risk scores and developing structured lifestyle programmes with new models of care that lead to improved clinical outcomes,” she added.
Sathya Sriram, chief executive officer, preventive health, Apollo Hospitals, said the silver lining was that the report showed how structured programmes helped individuals reduce the risk and slowing the progression of the conditions among at-risk individuals.
