Social class and all-cause mortality in an urban population of North India

Abstract

This study indicates that circulatory diseases, injury and malignant diseases have become the major causes of death in India, after infections. Members of social classes 1-3 died more often due to circulatory diseases and members in lower social classes died more often due to infections. Urbanization with rapid changes in diet and lifestyle in various social classes, and possibly aging of the population seem to be responsible for the double burden of diseases, related to under- and over-nutrition, causing death in a developing economy. Monitoring of blood pressure and heart rate around the clock for 7 days, with data analysed chronobiologically can detect abnormal circadian patterns associated with a large increase in cardiovascular disease risk, greater than hypertension itself, allowing the institution of prophylactic treatment. Such prehabilitation may be particularly useful to curb the increasing burden of cardiovascular diseases in both developed and developing countries.

Trauma Care in India and Germany

“…India has just 1% of total motor vehicles in the world, but these account for 6% of the global road traffic accidents [19]. According to some recent studies, 13% to 18% of total deaths occur due to trauma-related injuries [12,16,36]. Injury is the third most important cause of mortality in India and is the most common cause of death among individuals younger than 40 years [11].…”

“…Approximately 385,806 accidents (77.5% of total accidents) and 102,620 fatalities occurred in road accidents (72.0%), and road accident injuries in 399,911 persons (78.2%) during 2011 were caused by the driver. Within this category, exceeding the lawful speed accounted for the highest number of injuries and fatalities [36]. Alcohol intake was the second most common cause in this category [24].…”

Glocalization of Social and Environmental Determinants of Health

“…Epidemiological studies indicate that various social markers of life and health; family income, housing, consumer durables, education and educational status (Appendix I), can influence the levels of physical inactivity, dietary patterns, salt intake, alcohol consumption, tobacco use and stress [4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. The lower social classes in developed countries have lower general education and have higher tobacco consumption and unhealthy dietary and lifestyle habits [4].…”

“…The lower social classes in developed countries have lower general education and have higher tobacco consumption and unhealthy dietary and lifestyle habits [4]. In developing countries, these social characteristics among higher social classes may be associated with greater consumption of dietary fats, tobacco and lower physical activity [5][6][7][8][9][10]. These behavioral risk factors may be also called primary risk factors of NCDs [11].…”

“…This attitude may encourage the capitalist health promotion policies common in the developed countries [3] to focus more on these issues. Lack of health education and improper health policies may cause millions of deaths every year because people and populations living in poverty, have no opportunity for health education due to poor public health services [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12].…”