Published Paper Details:

Background & objectives: Epidemiological information and disease prevalence studies have always been vital for planning control strategies and also help in monitoring the impact of interventions to control such diseases. The present study was done to estimate the nature of illnesses found amongst underprivileged sectors in Faridabad to understand the cultural and demographical aspects that may be linked to such common illnesses. Methods: Charitable medical services are free or discounted medical services provided by charitable hospitals or clinics, which are non-profit organisations to people who can't afford treatment. In this cross-sectional study, residents of Faridabad district were clinically assessed and treated for free. Seven rural and 19 urban clusters where nearly 750 people with underprivileged backgrounds came forward for the study. People with ongoing ailments were assessed alongside healthy individuals who required regular health checkups with utmost precaution to prevent community transmission. The treatment protocol revolved around palliative and curative treatment for symptomatic cases and preventative care only, when necessary, for asymptomatic cases. Results: The study was undertaken to identify the prevalence of different diseases. For this, a total of 744 subjects were enumerated in various clusters of the Faridabad district. There were 345(47.58%) females and 390 (52.42%) males examined by the study group. The overall prevalence of malnutrition was found to be quite high (75%) in children below the age of 13 and the same was (57.8%) among females between the age of 13-65. Subjects in the age group 13-65 years were found to have a high prevalence of DM-2 (51.02%), Gastritis (79.6%) and hypertension (30.8%), whereas, elderlies (above the age of 65) showed a large number of patients suffering from hypertension (82.1%) and with the history of ICH (60%). Interpretation & conclusions: The present results showed that the prevalence of biliary diseases, like acute hepatitis, was quite high in children, which can be attributed to the low percentage of vaccinated individuals (3.3%) with 13% of children partially vaccinated. Women and children were more susceptible to malnutrition and anaemia, while men and women below 65 years were seen to have a higher prevalence of DM-2, Hypertension and gastritis. Many elderlies were found to have a history of ICH and persistently high blood pressure. It is suggested that medical counsellors visit families to increase awareness among them about hygienic, healthy living habits & care for the elders, initiate action for free medicines, free health care and free food for the destitute from govt. and non-governmental agencies.