Diseases and problems of public health significance and its relation to socio-economic status in an urban slum of Haryana

Pages: 925-928
Vinod Kumar, Pardeep Khanna and Huchchannavar Raghavendra (Department of Community Medicine, Pt. B.D. Sharma PGIMS, Rohtak)
Garima Shivhare (MD Anatomy)
Pooja (Medical Officer, HCMS)
Pramod Kumar Saharan (College of Nursing, Pt. B.D. Sharma PGIMS, Rohtak)

There is large variation in occurrence of various diseases, their incidence, prevalence, associated complications. Not only is there a difference from one region to another, from north to south, east to west, rural to urban, a contrasting scenario can be seen even within the same city between the posh buildings of the city and the urban slum, between the rich and the poor. The rich and affluent society generally suffers from the non-communicable diseases while the poor are the victims of communicable diseases. The study was carried out in an urban slum of Rohtak district of Haryana. It was an interview based descriptive type of epidemiological study and design adopted was cross sectional. The interview was carried out by conducting house to house survey. All the houses where any family is residing were eligible to participate in the study.Total 400 houses were visited and 1928 subjects were studied.The data hence collected was analyzed using proportions, percentages and chi-square test, wherever applicable using SPSS version 18. Semi-skilled and skilled labourers constituted 19%. Out of total study subjects 51% were labourer or unemployed. A substantial proportion, 16.5% were unemployed. According to Kuppuswamy socio-economic status scale 57% families belonged to upper lower class and 30.5% were in lower middle class. In upper lower class two third individuals fell ill in last one year. In 39.5% families at least one member fell ill and in 24.5% families’ two members fell ill in last one year. Most common substance of abuse was tobacco (smoking) 20.5%. In 21% study subjects the duration of use of substance of abuse was more than 10 years. To conclude, the diseases were more common in upper middle class in urban slum and there was also a high prevalence of substance abuse. There is need for massive IEC activities for health promotion, disease prevention and de-addiction services against various substance of abuse.