Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Sept 9: Underlining the rural-urban dimension of risky health behaviour Dr. Sushil Sharma, HoD Cardiology GMC Jammu today conducted a day long camp in village Aghore in Akhnoor area of Jammu district. Around 250 patients were screened, evaluated and advised during the camp. Basic body tests were done and medicines were also provided as per the requirements.
Dr. Sharma observed that rural population is consistently less well-off than the urban population with respect to health. “They are more likely to engage in risky health related behaviours and to experience higher rates of chronic conditions. Cardiovascular diseases largely never discriminate on the basis of age, gender or other social constructs but some groups are at larger risk than those who are similarly situated. Of the common determinants responsible for growing burden of CVD risk in specific population, geographical and behavioural factors largely determines the overall condition. These differences are however largely preventable. They stem from unequal access to the condition and opportunities needed for good heart health,” he added.
While interacting with the patients, Dr. Sushil informed that there is no single cause of heart disease, but there are risk factors that increase the chance of developing it. The combination of risk factors contribute to the overall likelihood of having a heart attack or stroke. “The more risk factor a person has, the higher their chance of having a heart attack or stroke. Some risk factors cannot be controlled, such as age, gender, ethnic background and family history of heart disease. Other factors, however, are changeable. These include risky health behaviours such as smoking, alcohol, obesity, physical inactivity, high blood cholesterol etc. However changing these risk factors requires individual effort like walking to be physically active, good quality food for healthy eating, regular monitoring of blood pressure, avoid smoking and alcohol etc.”
He said prevention of cardiovascular diseases in rural and remote communities besides stressing the core issues of accessibility, availability and affordability requires basic lifestyle modifications at individual level. “Public health programs aiming to address lifestyle risk factors need to be tailored to the specific needs of rural populace. Most importantly, programs that raise awareness of CVD risk in the rural population are also needed,” he added.
Others who were part of this awareness campaign included Dr. Dhaneshwar Kapoor and Dr. Kewal Sharma. Paramedics and Volunteer included Kamal Kishore, Raghav Rajput, Vikas Kumar, Aman Gupta, Akshay Kumar, Gourav Sharma, Jagdeep Singh, Amandeep Singh, Rohit Khajuria, Rajeev Vohra and Raj Kumar.
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