Gender equity, community participation key to fight diabetes, high BP in India

Gender equity and community participation are essential to combat the rising cases of noncommunicable diseases NCDs like diabetes high BP in India said experts here on FridayNCDs including cancer cardiovascular diseases chronic respiratory diseases and obesity are responsible for 65 per cent of deaths in IndialdquoCommunity participation has helped improve infrastructure service delivery and health awareness even in remote regions where challenges are many We have seen that empowering local leaders and women to take part in planning and monitoring creates ownership and lasting changerdquo said Dr Thomas Keppen Nagaland Deputy Director Department of Health and Family Welfare at an event held in the national capitalKeppen suggested boosting communitybased approaches and documenting progress regularly to make systems more transparent and sustainableThe annual Evidence2Policy dialogue organised by The George Institute for Global Health India sparked conversations around bridging the knowdo gap in public health policy implementationldquoEquity in NCD care is not only about women but it is also about reaching men and every section of the community When healthcare is taken closer to people women come forward to seek care but we must also find ways to engage menrdquo said Dr Sumit Malhotra Professor Centre for Community Medicine AIIMS New DelhiMalhotra stressed the need to strengthen community health workers with regular medicine supplies and improve linkages between different levels of care to make the health system more responsive and fairerThe health officials also underscored the importance of datadriven decisionmaking equityoriented health policies and strengthening health systems to ensure universal access without financial hardshipMeanwhile the National Programme for Prevention and Control of NonCommunicable Diseases NPNCD a populationbased initiative for prevention control and screening for common NCDs has been rolled out in the country under the National Health Mission NHM and also as a part of CPHCldquoPopulationbased screening helps in better management of diseases by the way of early stage of detection followup and treatment adherencerdquo the Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Prataprao Jadhav shared in the ParliamentldquoA total of 3979 crore screenings for hypertension 3960 crore for diabetes 3357 crore for oral cancer 1572 crore for breast cancer have been carried out at all health facilities till November 30rdquo he added citing data from the NPNCD portalThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever