Prevalence of risk factors for non-communicable diseases in urban slum of Salem, Tamil Nadu

Background: Developing countries like India are experiencing increased burden of non-communicable diseases causing significant morbidity and mortality, both in urban and rural population. In this study we assessed the Risk factors of NCDs and its burden.Methods: There are four slums in the field practice area of UHTC, Annapoorana Medical College, Salem. Out of which one slum was selected by lot sampling and the participants by simple random sampling method. This survey included a total of 512 participants (272 males, 240 females) of age >20 years. The participants were interviewed with a pre-tested questionnaire. The study instrument was based on WHO STEP wise approach for surveillance of NCDs. STEP 1 and STEP 2 were used in our study. The performa included anthropometric measurements, blood pressure and questions related to tobacco use, alcohol consumption, dietary pattern, physical exercise. Microsoft Excel 2007 was used for data entry, SPSS version 24 for data analysis.Results: It was found that the prevalence of risk factors for NCDs was high. Tobacco use in any form was seen in 21.3% of the study population, alcohol consumption in 28.1%, overweight and obesity in 20.7%, sedentary habits in 84.6%, irregular intake of green leafy vegetables and fruits in 85% and high salt intake in 38.5% was observed.Conclusions: The study showed higher prevalence of risk factors for NCDs. This alarms the heavy future burden of NCDs in the urban slum that requires appropriate early actions to prevent risk factors, reducing the disease burden.