Report of Field Visit to Domkhar in Ladakh

Domkhar consists of three villages located in the northwestern part of Ladakh, at altitudes between 2900 and 4000 meters above sea level. We visited there in July, 2008 and conducted medical check-ups for the elderly and interviewed with them. About 73% of elderly residents over 60 years old who took our medical checkups had blood pressures of 140/90 mmHg or higher. Knee pain was the most common symptom supposed to be associated with heavy physical activities in the mountain. The average arterial blood oxygen saturation was 91.4±3.6 % among males and 88.7±4.8 % among females. The average hemoglobin level was 15.9±2.8 g/dl among males and 13.9±2.9 g/dl among females. Three out of 17 residents had a casual blood sugar 140 mg/dl or more. The average subjective quality of life (QOL) measured by visual analogue scale was 52.7±18.0 in health, 82.2±10.0 in family relationship, 82.7±9.9 in friendship, 62.4±21.3 in economics and 69.4±19.0 in happiness. We should pay more attention to the impact of changing lifestyle and environments on prevalence of lifestyle-related diseases and QOL in the elderly in highland worlds.