Prevalence and determinants of chronic illness and quality of life among rural residents of Pondicherry - A descriptive cross-sectional study

Abstract

The lifestyle diseases which are becoming chronic noncommunicable disorders contribute to about 53% of death rate in India affecting the DALY to a greater extent. These lifestyle illnesses are proving to be a great challenge in public health as they are necessitating for the advanced modalities of screening techniques that have to be in place for early detection. The objectives of the study were to assess the prevalence and determinants of chronic illness and quality of life among rural residents of Pondicherry. The study is a descriptive observational study using a validated structured questionnaire among rural residents who have crossed the adolescent period. The subjects included people aged above 18 years. It is observed that about 45.5% of the study population are between 38 and 58 years and about 24% of the study population were skilled, 10.6% are illiterate and 59.8% of the study population are not regular visitors to any health center, about 72% of them attend a health facility once in 3- 5–7 months/year. It is observed that about 24.6% have had the disease for 6–10 years. Among them, 25.9% are diabetic, 7.3% are hypertensive, 8% have both, 3.7% had asthma, 0.3% are CAD, and 0.7% had a stroke. According to physical (median = 26), psychological (median = 21), social (median = 11), and environmental (median = 29) domains, quality of life was moderately good. This study revealed that all the domains are affected in the quality of life even in a rural area where urbanisation and industrialisation is not establihed.