Summary:
Kolkata, Nov 28 (PTI) Lifestyle changes, consumption of unhealthy foods, tobacco smoking and urbanisation may be among the factors behind increase in deaths due to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes and cancer in the tribal districts of India, experts say.
A recent survey by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) of over 5,000 family members of deceased tribal people, interviewed between 2015 and 2018 in 12 tribal districts of India, showed that NCDs accounted for 66 per cent of deaths.
"Tribal communities are being exposed to risk factors of urbanisation, consuming refined foods, fast food, easy road transportation and modern day lifestyle.
They are gradually giving up their own traditional and cultural ways of living.
All these have impacted their life," Prashant Mathur, Director of ICMR"s National Centre for Disease Informatics and Research, Bengaluru, told PTI.
"NCDs are primarily driven by our modern ways of living, and thus we are having more and more cases and deaths due to NCDs in the 12 tribal districts," he added.
The expert noted that the higher death rates due to NCDs may also be because of improvement in life expectancy and better control measures for infectious diseases in these tribal districts.
"Earlier, people used to die because of various infectious diseases like malaria, tuberculosis, diarrhea.
Now, with better hygiene, and better infectious control, non-communicable diseases emerge as a major problem," he said.
Professor Lalit Kumar, former Head of Department of Medical Oncology at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, noted that rural India, including the tribal areas, are changing "very very fast" and are witnessing shifts in food habits similar to the urban areas, leading to the rise of NCDs.
"Junk food use, smoking and consumption of alcohol have gone up though these tribal people consume homegrown liquor.
Normally, among other causes of death, one-third are related to smoking while another one-third related to diet including junk food," he told PTI over phone.
Public health expert Chandrakant Lahariya agreed with the two experts.
"The NCDs are rising across the country.
Even before this study there were studies on diabetes and hypertension, obesity and other risk factors for NCDs.