Management of non-communicable diseases in an industrial set up – A cohort study from Odisha, an eastern Indian state

Abstract

BackgroundIn the era of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), it is quite important to understand the root-cause and method of management, as NCDs are not curable in most cases. Factory workers are exposed to several risk factors, such as smoke, dust, different harmful chemicals, metals etc. everyday. Their food habit, consumption of tobacco, alcohol etc., stressful responsibilities are other factors those may induce NCDs. Hence, to demark a baseline and reduce the NCD burden gradually, regular medical examination (RME) was planned and this study was conducted to estimate the change in NCD prevalence and risk reduction occurred after a year. MethodsThe participants in this study were 602 workers from various departments of a steel plant, located in Dhenkanal, Odisha. Two phases of data were acquired for systolic and diastolic blood pressure, random blood sugar level, body mass index (BMI) and serum cholesterol. Continuous variables were described as mean and standard deviation or median with inter-quartile range, while categorical variables were presented as frequency and percentage. Wilcoxon Signed Ranks test was applied to evaluate the mean difference before and after one year. ResultsMost of the participants either improved their health or maintained their health status. Except for serum cholesterol, all other blood parameters (systolic and diastolic blood pressure, blood sugar level) reduced significantly, though BMI increased significantly. Only serum cholesterol increased marginally. ConclusionThe initiative of RME was found to be effective. If continued, RME has the potential to keep employees healthy in a factory setup.