Health, morbidity and life style status of patients suffering from chronic disorder

The present study was undertaken to study the Health and nutritional profile of patients suffering from chronic disorders who were attending three different systems of medicine viz., allopathy, ayurveda and naturopathy. The data was collected from 245 respondents (Allopathy-105, Ayurvedic-70 and Naturopathy-70) using structured and pre tested interview schedule. The collected data was analyzed using appropriate statistical tools. The results of the study revealed that, majority of the patients were males (63.7 percent) and Nearly 42 percent of them were in the age group of 41-50. Highest percentage of respondents were graduates and Greater percentage (52.00) of them belonged to nuclear family and monthly income was in the range of Rs. 10.000 to 15,000. with respect to dietry pattern, majority (71%) of respondents were non vegetarians followed by vegetarians (29.40%). with regard to meal pattern, early morning meal was invariably coffee in all the three groups except in case of diabetics who consumed coffee without sugar and cereals were the main staple in their diet irrespective of the disease condition. Majority of the respondents ranging from 64.0 to 89.0 percent in the three groups studied belonged to sedentary type of work followed by moderate type of work (23.0%). Sleeping pattern of respondents presently being followed and the duration of sleep revealed that around 50.0 percent of them had good sleep. The pooled data indicated that, higher percentage of (52.2%) subjects were alcoholics compared to the habit of smoking (47.8%) prior to disease. Combined pool data revealed that 3.0 to 84.0 percent of subjects exhibited traits like efficient, alert, competent and hostile. Among the groups, the different stress types like, general stress, house hold work stress and marital stress of subjects the percentage ranged from 28.60 to 42.80. High percentage of (59.00) subjects had discoloured hair followed by subjects with normal skin (56.10). Very few subjects (0.90%) expressed having had angular stomatitis and red and raw tongue.