It is seemingly an emergency health alert for Odisha. Keonjhar, State’s mining hub, now has nearly one-fifth of its rural population affected by hypertension.
Keonjhar is also the only district among States likes Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh to display such a high rate of hypertension affected rural populace in this region of the country. Even the average hypertension affected populace in Keonjhar is high at around 20 per cent.
Such a worrying trend has been brought to the fore by the recently-released Clinical, Anthropometric and Bio-chemical Survey-2014 (CAB-2014) by the Census office here.
While around 20 per cent population show above normal range, the CAB data reveals that over 6 per cent have moderately high blood pressure in Keonjhar. However, very high blood pressure (180/110) is recorded in over 1 per cent population in the district, which though is more than three times that of the average State population affected by very high blood pressure.
It needs mentioning that CAB data shows when on an average over 8.5 per cent population in 18 years age and above have above normal BP, only around 1.6 per cent and 0.3 per cent have moderately high and very high BP in Odisha. Among its neighbours, only Chhattisgarh has lower proportion of population affected by hypertension.
Kendrapada with around 13 per cent of its population recording abnormal blood pressure follows Keonjhar in Odisha. Even, a high of 4.4 per cent population in 18-year and above shows moderately high BP. Mayubhanj comes third with over 11 per cent affected by abnormal blood pressure. Significantly, in deaths due to heart ailments/hypertension in Odisha last year, Mayurbhanj topped the districts and Kendrapada was among one of the high burden districts. Districts like Nayagarh, Dhenkanal and Kalahandi that have recorded higher mortality burden due to heart ailments last year also indicate high incidence of abnormal BP. The CAB-2014 also delivers another health alert. It reveals that Sambalpur district has the maximum population affected by diabetes in Odisha. A whopping 7.5 per cent population in the district shows a blood-sugar level above 130mg/dl, whereas around 4 per cent record a blood-sugar level of over 150mg/dl.
But Khordha district makes it to the top in the State with around 14 per cent of its population in 18-year and above age-group having blood-sugar levels above the normal range of 110mg/dl, though moderate and high blood-sugar proportion in population is less than Sambalpur. However, Khordha district has the maximum rural populace affected by diabetes in the State followed by Sambalpur and Kandhamal. Almost 12 per cent of populace in Cuttack have blood-sugar level above 110mg/dl.
Significantly, the State as a whole on an average has over 8 per cent populace with abnormal blood-sugar levels. Moderate and high diabetes is recorded in around 3.4 and 2 per cent population respectively, finds the survey. Though proportionately more males are affected by diabetes than females, Keonjhar and Jharsuguda are two exceptions in the State.
About half-a-dozen districts in the State have diabetes- affected population more than the State average. Among its neighbouring States, Odisha has a higher proportion of moderate and high diabetic affected populace.