Prevalence of non-communicable diseases among camel milk consumers and non-consumers tribal population aged more than equal to 30 years in rural Rajasthan: A community-based cross-sectional study

Abstract

There is an ongoing trend of increasing burden of non-communicable diseases among the tribal population. The objective was to determine the prevalence of non-communicable diseases among camel milk consumers (CMC) and non-consumers tribal population aged ≥ 30 years in rural Rajasthan. A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 60 adults CMC aged >30 years from the Riaka tribe. Same number of non-camel milk consumers (NCMC) were recruited with respect to similar age, gender, and residence from the same tribe. After obtaining informed consent, a semi-structured interview schedule containing sociodemographic dietary characteristics was introduced to all participants in June 2013. The participants were assessed for their random blood glucose, blood pressure, and lipid profile. Data was entered into Microsoft Excel version 2013 and analyzed in Stata version 13. Among all, 26.6% male and 23.3% female NCMC participants were found to be suffering from diabetes and in CMC male participants, only 3.3 % were found to be suffering from diabetes. The mean standard deviation (SD) random blood glucose level of CMC and NCMC participants was 98.67 ± 8.81 and 115.50 ± 28.12 mg/dL for male participants and 95.93 ± 5.17 and 110.50 ± 35.22 mg/dL for female participants, respectively, with significant statistical differences. Stage-I hypertension (HTN) was reported in only NCMC male participants, which are further classified as systolic and diastolic stage-I HTN in 4 % and 2% participants, respectively. No cases of stage II HTN were observed. Mean (SD) systolic blood pressures (mmHg) were more in NCMC (122.36 ± 7.67) than CMC (118.84 ± 5.81) female participants with a statistically significant difference (P < 0.05). In this study, we found that total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein levels were less, and high-density lipoprotein level was more in CMC compared to NCMC irrespective of gender. The prevalence of non-communicable diseases was relatively less in CMC than NCMC irrespective of gender, suggesting the beneficial effects of camel milk consumption. It is advised that additional research be conducted in the future.