Revision as of 21:36, 23 April 2017

Health indications

2005 to 2015: significant improvement in health indicators

Sushmi Dey, India got healthier in last 10 yrs: Study , March 1, 2017: The Times of India

India's health indicators show significant improvement over the last decade with a decline in infant mortality complimented by a better sex ratio, more institutional deliveries and wider vaccine coverage.

The population rate is also a showing positive change, according to the new set of government data gathered during the fourth phase of National Family Health Survey .“The results show that if we invest and design good programmes in health, results will follow,“ health secretary C K Mishra said.

Haryana projected a commendable change in its sex ra tio at birth. While 762 females were born per 1,000 males in Haryana during NFHS 3 (2005-06), the ratio improved to 836 females per 1,000 males in the survey in 2014-15.

But the sex ratio at birth improved marginally nationally with 919 females born against 1,000 males during the fourth phase of the survey . During 2005-06, 914 females were born per 1,000 males. India's total fertility rate also declined to 2.2 from 2.7 over last decade, inching closer to the replacement level of 2.1. Overall, the level declined by 1.2 children per woman from NFHS 1 to NFHS 4. The data shows Uttar Pradesh showcased maximum decline in TFR, which dropped from 2.7 to 1.1in last eight years. Infant mortality rate declined from 57 to 41 per 1,000 live births between the third and the fourth phase of the survey. The institutional deliveries witnessed a dramatic growth of 40 percentage points from 38.7% in NFHS 3 to 78.9% in NFHS 4. Institutional births in public health facilities increased by 34.1% during the period.

The immunisation coverage across the country improved to almost 70% of fully immunised children at present from 44% in 2005-06.

India recorded a 10 percentage point decline in stunting from 48% during the third phase of the survey to 38.4% in the fourth round.Percentage of under-weight children declined from 42.5% to 35.7% in eight years.

C-sections falling in govt hospitals

C-section deliveries are increasing rapidly in private hospitals across the country, whereas public hospitals have recorded a decline over the last decade, shows data from the fourth phase of the National Family Health Survey. In private hospitals, C-section surgeries increased from 27.7% in NFHS3 to 40.9% in the fourth phase, whereas in public hospitals it declined from 15.2% to 11.9% during the period. Sushmi Dey TNN

The major ailments

2005-15: Heart attacks, lung obstruction, strokes

The ten top causes of death in India, 2005-15

Subodh Varma, Heart attacks, lung disease, strokes 3 worst killers in India, Oct 19 2016 : The Times of India

Together Account For One-Third Of All Deaths

Heart attacks, lung obstruction and strokes are the three top causes of death in India, accounting for over one-third of deaths. Along with diabetes and chronic kidney diseases, they make five non-communicable diseases that are part of the top ten causes of death.

Communicable diseases in the top 10 include lower respiratory tract diseases like bronchitis and pneumonia, diarrhoea, TB and diseases occurring to prematurely born babies. Road injuries are the tenth most prevalent cause of death. Together, these 10 make up 60% of the 10.3 million deaths every year.

The even mix of communicable diseases and non communicable ones caused by organs failing due to age or lifestyle choices, puts India in the middle of a disease transition seen across the world.

These results are from the Global Burden of Diseases 2015, an estimation of 249 causes of death in 195 countries by an international team of researchers led by the Seattle-based Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation, and published recently in Lancet. “With improvement in tre atment by antibiotics and better understanding, deaths by infectious diseases have declined while sedentary lives, longer lifespans and other lifestyle habits have pushed up the proportion of non-communicable diseases in India,“ said Dr Amit Sengupta, an expert affiliated to the Peoples' Health Movement. The persistence of three eminently treatable in fectious diseases and the lack of care in eliminating preterm baby deaths points to the still lagging healthcare system, as also lack of safe drinking water and sanitation,“ he added.

India's position in the middle of the transition from a poor, healthcare-deficient country to an advanced country is brought out starkly when compared with examples from such countries.In Niger, one of the poorest countries in the world, with a per capita gross domestic product less than one-fifth of India's, eight of the top ten causes of death are communicable diseases. At the other extreme, Norway , with per capita gross domestic product over ten times that of India, has just one communicable disease -lower respiratory tract infections -among its top ten, with the other nine being non-communicable diseases.

China, which started off from conditions similar to India, has moved much further towards the advanced end of the transition. It too has only one infectious diseases among its top ten causes of death.

Both India and China have road injuries as one of the major causes of death due to large populations and a rapidly growing number of vehicles on the roads. The large number of types of vehicles (from cycles and bullock carts to fast moving cars) also contributes to high number of road injuries.

A striking feature of India's death-causing diseases profile is that all the noncommunicable diseases are increasing while all the infectious diseases are declining compared with a decade ago. Diabetes as a cause of death has grown at a chilling 35% between 2005 and 2015, chronic kidney disease by 21% and heart attacks by 17% even as communicable disease deaths have dropped by 20 to 30% while preterm baby deaths dropped by 40%.