Objective:To estimate the usefulness of the Indian diabetes risk score for detecting undiagnosed diabetes in the rural area of Tamil Nadu.Materials and Methods:The present study was conducted in the field practice area of rural health centers (Chunampett and Annechikuppam, Tamil Nadu), covering a population of 35000 from February to March 2008 by using a predesigned and pretested protocol to find out the prevalence and the risk of diabetes mellitus in general population by using Indian diabetes risk score.Results:1936 respondents comprising 1167 (60.27%) females and 769 (39.73%) males were studied. Majority 1203 (62.50%) were Hindus. 1220 (63.%) had studied up to higher secondary. 1200 (62%) belonged to lower and lower-middle socio-economic class. A large number of the subjects 948 (50%) were below 35 years of age. Most of the respondents 1411 (73%) indulged in mild to moderate physical activity. 1715 (87.91%) had no family history of diabetes mellitus. 750 (39.64%) individuals were in the overweight category (>25 BMI). Out of these overweight persons, 64% had high diabetic risk score. It is observed that chances of high diabetic score increase with the increase in BMI. Prevalence of diabetes in studied population was 5.99%; out of these, 56% known cases of diabetes mellitus had high (>60) IDRS. Co-relation between BMI and IDRS shows that, if BMI increases from less than 18.50 to more than 30, chances of high risk for developing diabetes mellitus also significantly increase.Conclusions:This study estimates the usefulness of simplified Indian diabetes risk score for identifying undiagnosed high risk diabetic subjects in India. This simplified diabetes risk score has categorized the risk factors based on their severity. Use of the IDRS can make mass screening for undiagnosed diabetes in India more cost effective.

An increase in noncommunicable disease (NCD) in India has been attributed to an epidemiologic transition whereby, due to urbanization, there is an increase in traditional cardiovascular disease risk factors such as obesity. Accumulated biomarker data on the "Asian Indian phenotype" identify central obesity, which occurs at a lower body mass index (BMI), as a particularly potent risk factor in Asian Indians. A revised WHO case definition for obesity in India [BMI (in kg/m(2)) >25] has identified an obesity epidemic that exceeds 30% in some cities and rivals that in Western nations. This review summarizes 2 key lines of evidence: 1) the emergence of an obesity epidemic in urban and rural India and its contribution to the NCD burden and 2) the role of a "nutrition transition" in decreasing the whole plant food content of diets in India and increasing risk of obesity and NCDs. We then present new epidemiologic evidence from Asian Indians enrolled in the Adventist Health Study 2 that raises the possibility of how specific whole plant foods (eg, nuts) in a vegetarian dietary pattern could potentially prevent obesity and NCDs in a target population of >1 billion persons.

The present study was conducted in the Urban Health centre, Muthialpet, Pondicherry covering a population of 40000 from July to October 2007 by using a predesigned and pretested proforma to find out the risk of diabetes in general population by using Indian Diabetes Risk Score. A total of 616 respondents were studied comprising 325(53%) females and 290(47%) males. Majority 518(85%) were Hindus. Of them, 380 (62 %) had studied up to higher secondary and above, 539 (87%) belonged to upper middle and upper socioeconomic class. A large number of the subjects 422(68%) were above 35 years of age. Most of the respondents 558(90.50%) indulged in mild to moderate physical activity. Again, 422 (68.50%) had no family history of diabetes mellitus, 315 (51%) individuals were in the overweight category (>25 BMI), and 261 (83%) of high Diabetic Risk Score individuals were overweight. It is observed that chances of high diabetic score increase with the increase in BMI. Prevalence of diabetes in the studied population were 51 (8.27%), out of that 39 (76%) had high (>60) IDRS score. The relationship between BMI and IDRS shows that if BMI increases from under weight (<18.50) to obesity (>30) chances of risk for diabetes also increases significantly.

<p class="abstract"><strong>Background:</strong> Understanding of health seeking behaviour (HSB) is essential to provide need based health care services to the population. Many factors like sex, age, type of illness, access to services and perceived quality of the services, influences the health seeking behavior. This study assessed the HSB among rural population of a coastal area in Tamil Nadu.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Methods:</strong> A community based descriptive study was done in a rural coastal area of Villupuram district in Tamil Nadu state of India. Using simple random sampling method, 559 participants were selected. A pre-tested structured questionnaire was used to collect the data. Information about socio-demographic characteristics, presence of acute or chronic illness, health care seeking behavior and reasons for non-utilization of particular health facilities etc. was obtained. Chi square test was applied to find the association of health care seeking behavior with various participant characteristics.  </p><p class="abstract"><strong>Results:</strong> Among 559 study participants, majority (56.4%) visited public health care facilities for various illnesses. Almost one-third of the study participants visited the private health facilities and another 11.6 percent visited other health facilities including pharmacies. Among various causes, febrile illnesses (39.5%) and pain (20.8%) were the most common reasons for visiting a health care facility. Individual’s income was significantly associated with the HSB (p value &lt;0.05). Availability of services, free of cost was reported as most common reason for preferring to the public health facility. On other hand, private practitioners were preferred due to their better availability and quality of care.</p><strong>Conclusions:</strong> Public health care facilities were preferred by due to low cost of services and HSB varies with the type of illness and income of the individuals.

Objective:To study the prevalence of obesity and overweight among school children in Puducherry. To identify any variation as per age, gender, place of residence and type of school.Setting and design:Secondary data analysis of a school-based cross sectional study in all the four regions of Puducherry.Materials and Methods:Children between 6 and 12 yrs were sampled using multistage random sampling with population proportionate to size from 30 clusters. Anthropometric data (BMI) was analyzed using CDC growth charts. Data was analyzed using SPSS, BMI (CDC) calculator, CI calculator and OR calculator.Results:The prevalence of overweight (≥85th percentile) among children was 4.41% and prevalence of obesity (>95th percentile) was 2.12%. Mahe region had the highest prevalence of overweight (8.66%) and obesity (4.69%). Female children from private schools and urban areas were at greater risk of being overweight and obese.Conclusions:Childhood obesity is a problem in Puducherry and requires timely intervention for its control.