Low
wages could lead to hypertension
Workers earning the lowest wages
have a higher risk of hypertension than those who receive handsome salaries, a
new study suggests. The correlation between wages and hypertension was
especially strong among women and persons between the ages of 25 to 44.
“We were surprised that low wages
were such a strong risk factor for two populations not typically associated
with hypertension, which is more often linked with being older and male,” J.
Paul Leigh, senior author of the study and professor of public health sciences
at UC Davis said.
“Our outcome shows that women and
younger employees working at the lowest pay scales should be screened regularly
for hypertension as well,” Leigh said.
The study is believed to be the
first to isolate the role of wages in hypertension, which occurs when the force
of circulating blood against artery walls is too high.
According to the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, hypertension affects approximately 1 in 3 adults in the
US and costs more than 90 billion dollars each year in health-care services,
medications and missed work days. It also is a major contributor to heart
disease and stroke, both of which are leading causes of death and disability. While
there is a known association between lower socioeconomic status (SES) and
hypertension, determining the specific reason for that association has been
difficult, according to Leigh.
Other researchers have focused on
factors such as occupation, job strain, education and insurance coverage, with
unclear results. Leigh’s study was the first to focus on wages and
hypertension.
“By isolating a direct and
fundamental aspect of work that people greatly value, we were able to shed
light on the relationship between SES and circulatory health,” Leigh said.
“Wages are also a part of the
employment environment that easily can be changed. Policymakers can raise the
minimum wage, which tends to increase wages overall and could have significant
public-health benefits,” Leigh added.
The study is published in the
European Journal of Public Health.
16.01.2013
India
needs diabetes guidelines, stress docs
Indian doctors have geared up to put
in place customised guidelines to fight the ever-growing problem of diabetes in
the local population.
Although American Diabetes
Association (ADA) came up with a new set of guidelines to treat diabetes in
2012, local doctors feel that the Indian medical fraternity should formulate
national ones.
“ADA guidelines don’t cater
holistically to the demands of Indian diabetics. Our eating habits and
lifestyle are different. We are genetically more predisposed to diabetes apart
from diet and stress factors which, too, are on the higher side,” said Dr
Deepak Jumani, member of Indian Academy of Diabetes (IAD).
Experts say there are various drugs
used across the world to treat the disease. But in India, 80% of the population
is put on the standard triple-drug combination therapy. “One out of five
diabetes patients has side effects — swelling in their feet, weight gain and
drastic fall in sugar level. Indian doctors need to be educated on
individualised treatment in such cases, which is not possible if American
guidelines are followed. So the IAD is all set to bring out newer guidelines in
the near future. These are in the process of being drafted,” said Dr Shashank
Joshi, IAD president.
Professor of medicine at Mayo Clinic
in USA, Dr Sreekumaran Nair agrees.
“Our research on Indian immigrants
have revealed that Indians being more predisposed to diabetes than Caucasians
and having higher resistance to insulin.”
Close to 2,000 physicians attended
the 12th International Symposium for diabetes in India, which was organised by
IAD to discuss the challenges of tackling the disease from an Indian
perspective.
“The challenge is to make devices
like insulin pumps affordable. Also, it’s a high time for such chronic
non-communicable diseases to be made a part of the national health guidelines
for better intervention,” Jumani said.
16.01.2013
No comments:
Post a Comment