Hyderabad on way to becoming obesity, hypertension capital  

HYDERABAD: Is Hyderabad headed to becoming the hypertension capital of India? 
Preliminary results of a widespread survey of 10,000 patients in GHMC region conducted by Gleneagles Global Hospitals (GGH) in association with Cardiological Society of India (CSI), Telangana Chapter, seems to suggest this. The study found nearly 40.7 per cent of the population having hypertension and another 39.8 per cent of the population in a “pre-hypertension” phase. 

The interim report involved analysing nearly 5,000 patients (3,565 males and 922  females) by the statisticians of National Institute of Nutrition. “For the survey, we screened the population aged between 25 and 50 years of age across 15 hospitals linked with CSI. Three crucial findings were that firstly, 70.8 per cent of the population had BMI of over 24, which implied they are overweight.

The second was that 75 per cent had unhealthy dietary habits and 10 per cent and 24 per cent respectively smoked and consumed liquor. These unhealthy habits have risen post Covid, possibly contributing to rise in hypertension ,” said Dr Rajeev Garg, president, Telangana chapter of Cardiology Society of India.

Further putting it in context, Anurag Yadav, Group CEO, IHH Healthcare India, explained that compared to global and India’s averages, Hyderabad’s numbers were alarming. “Global prevalence of hypertension is 20 per cent, Indian prevalence in various studies ranges from 22 per cent to 27 per cent. Shockingly, Hyderabad currently has a 40 per cent prevalence of hypertension. The survey also shows that 70 per cent surveyed followed unhealthy diet, 70 per cent were overweight/obese, which means that there has been tremendous lifestyle modification among the people during the pandemic,” he said.

Health Minister Harish Rao, who released the report, expressed Telangana government’s commitment to identify and work towards resolving the issue. “Telangana as a state ranks 3rd in terms of Non-Communicable Diseases. These new findings are very worrying for us. In our NCD screenings as well, we observed that of the 90 lakh people screened, 13 lakh displayed symptoms of hypertension. Owing to this, we have allocated Rs 33 crore to screen every adult above 45 years in the state for BP and Sugar in the next three months,” said Harish Rao.

Dr Riyaz Khan, Cluster COO, Gleneagles Global Hospitals, Hyderabad, said that while hypertension is a concern, one must not ignore diabetes as well. “We found that apart from hypertension, in Hyderabad diabetes prevalence has increased from an average of 25 per cent to 33 per cent. Most of the time, diabetes will not show major symptoms until detected after a sudden stroke or heart attack or kidney disease,” he said.