Contracting Lifestyle Disease in Adulthood

InnoHEALTH Magazine — Tue, 10 Jul 2018 07:00:23 +0000

A recent study has found that about 10% of school children in Bengaluru are obese. 13.8% children are at risk of contracting lifestyle disease in adulthood with waistlines which are more than half their height.

School-based screening of 104,105 children studying in 138 private schools has revealed some alarming trends in school students in Bengaluru. The study was conducted by AddressHealth, the provider of health services in schools for children in India. The survey data was compiled over the current academic year and revealed a significant degree of malnutrition (both over and undernutrition) among children – with 9.2% of children being obese and another 13.7% children falling into the overweight category (overnutrition) while about 8.5% of them are too thin for their age (undernutrition).

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Apart from this, 28.6% of school children have dental caries (cavities) while 15.1% have newly detected/ worsening vision problems. In addition, more than 200 children had previously undetected cardiac murmurs, and 70 children had previously undetected hearing defects. Commenting on the survey results Dr. Anand Lakshman, Founder and CEO, AddressHealth, said, “Children are increasingly vulnerable due to a variety of lifestyle. And environmental factors such as the proliferation of fast food options, lack of physical activity, too much screen time etc.

We believe Contracting lifestyle disease in adulthood, reveals a recent study By InnoHealth Editorial Team 40 Volume 3 | Issue 3 | July-September 2018 Key findings of the survey :

• About 10% of primary school children are obese. Further 13% of children overweight and 9.4% of those in middle and secondary school are too thin;
• Vision problems are more common among children in the primary and secondary age group with 1 in 7 and 1 in 5 children affected, respectively;
• Dental caries has emerged as the most neglected chronic condition among children; and
• Nearly 8% of children have clinical signs of anemia

Schools and parents/guardians should place adequate emphasis on children’s health and well-being. Beyond the usual vaccines and episodes of sickness, failing which non-communicable diseases will only become more common in the younger generation. The times are changing, and new age problems need to be addressed proactively and continuously. The data from our mental health program also suggests a moderate risk of mental health conditions amongst school children such as emotional difficulties, behavioral issues and lack of social skills”.

“Schools are not just centers for imparting formal education but also institutions that influence values, beliefs and importantly practices. A healthy lifestyle including hygiene habits must be inculcated during childhood. These positive behaviors will last through to adulthood and for the rest of a person’s life. Children are naturally inquisitive and keen learners. They can thus become both the beneficiaries and the agents of change in the family,” added Dr. Lakshman.

AddressHealth has conducted surveys in 177 schools covering 1,26,467 children across 4 Indian cities including Bengaluru, and data points to similar trends across cities with a high likelihood of chronic diseases in adulthood.

The number of children covered by the surveys over the last 12 months. It includes 1,04,105 children in Bengaluru, 652 in Delhi, 18,422 in Hyderabad, and 3,288 in Pune. The prevalence of various conditions across these four cities is as follows: obese as per BMI for age standards (8.8%), over-weight but not obese (12.6%), low BMI (8.5%), risk of lifestyle diseases [Waist/Height Ratio>0.5] (14.6%), vision problems (14.6%), and dental caries (29.7%). About 219 and 9101 children are at risk of potential heart defects and clinical anemia, respectively.

Obesity is seen across income groups. But rising rapidly in the schools catering to higher income groups and primary and secondary school children. There is an increasing trend of the risk of lifestyle disease, due to reduced physical activity, which is reflected in the significant percentage of children with a higher than recommended waist-to-height ratio.

AddressHealth’s school health services are designed by a team of pediatricians, public health experts, child psychiatrists, psychologists, nutritionists and other health professionals. The services include Annual Health check-ups for children; Medical Room / Tele-infirmary; School Emotional/Mental Wellbeing Services (Nurturing Schools Program); and Health Education with Workbooks (Standard 1st to 8th). Currently AddressHealth’s services encompass ~ 200,000 children in over 200 schools in Bengaluru, Delhi NCR, Hyderabad & Pune The AddressHealth School Health Program is based on WHO guidelines for schools.

The post Contracting Lifestyle Disease in Adulthood appeared first on InnoHEALTH magazine.

Consequences of Workplace Harassment

InnoHEALTH Magazine — Mon, 07 May 2018 09:59:10 +0000

Employees who experience sexual harassment by supervisors, colleagues or subordinates in the workplace may develop more severe symptoms of depression than employees who experience harassment from clients or customers. The research which involved 7603 employees from across 1041 organizations in Denmark was published in the open access journal BMC Public Health.

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Dr. Ida Elisabeth Huitfeldt Madsen, National Research Centre for the Working Environment, Denmark, the corresponding author said: “We were surprised to see the differences between the effects of harassment by clients or customers compared to harassment by other employees. This is not something that has been shown before. Previous research showed an increased risk of long-term sickness absence for employees exposed to sexual harassment by a colleague, supervisor or subordinate but an increased risk was not always found in association with sexual harassment by clients or customers.”

Dr. Madsen added: “Our findings suggest that sexual harassment from clients or customers have adverse consequences and should not be normalized or ignored. In this study, we found that sexual harassment from clients or customers, which is more prevalent than harassment from other employees, is associated with an increased level of depressive symptoms. This is important as some workplaces, for example in person-related work like care work or social work, may have an attitude that dealing with sexual harassment by clients or customers is ‘part of the job’.”

The researchers found that compared to employees not exposed to sexual harassment, employees harassed by clients or customers scored 2.05 points higher on the Major Depression Inventory (MDI) – a self-report mood questionnaire that generates a diagnosis of depression together with an estimate of symptom severity. Scores on the MDI range from 20 for minor depression to 30 or more for major depression. Employees harassed by a colleague, supervisor or subordinate scored 2.45 points higher compared to employees who had experienced sexual harassment by clients or customers.

When looking at clinical depression only, the researchers found no increased risk among those harassed by clients or customers compared to those not exposed to harassment, whereas those harassed by colleagues, supervisors or subordinates had a significantly higher risk of clinical depression.

Out of the 7603 employees who participated in this study, 2.4% (180) were exposed to sexual harassment by clients or customers, while 1.0% (79) was exposed to harassment by colleagues. Women were more likely to be exposed than men, with 169 out of 4116 women reporting sexual harassment by clients or customers compared to 11 out of 3487 men, and 48 women reporting sexual harassment by colleagues compared to 31 men. Participants employed in care workers were more often exposed to sexual harassment by clients or customers – 152 out of 2191 (6.9%) – than participants employed in other occupational groups such as education, service or industrial work.

The authors note that as the number of exposed individuals in this study was relatively low. This increases the uncertainty of the reported estimates, especially for men. The observed associations may thus largely be reflective of women’s experiences. The cross-sectional observational design of this study does not allow for conclusions about cause and effect. Also, the use of self-reported data that relied on participant recall may have led to sexual harassment being under- or over-reported.

Despite these limitations, the authors suggest that it is important to investigate sexual harassment from clients or customers and sexual harassment by colleagues, supervisors or subordinates as distinct types of harassment and to identify methods to prevent sexual harassment and the development of depressive symptoms.

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Contracting Lifestyle Disease in Adulthood

Consequences of Workplace Harassment