Morbidity pattern of tea garden residents of Darjeeling, India

Abstract

Abstract Tea industry is an important agroindustry of the northern part of West Bengal. Poor socioeconomic conditions, illiteracy, culture and food habit, overcrowding, make the population vulnerable to various communicable and noncommunicable diseases. This study was done to identify the pattern of communicable and noncommunicable diseases among the outpatient attendees of a tea-estate in Darjeeling, West Bengal, India. The cross-sectional record-based study was conducted among the beneficiaries of the tea-garden clinic. Among them, proportion having non-communicable diseases (65.2%) were higher than communicable disease (34.8%). Most of the communicable (61.9%) and noncommunicable (87.9%) diseases were among 20–60 years age group. Among them, majority of the communicable disease were respiratory (51.9%) and mainly upper respiratory tract infection (100%). In this age group, majority of the cardiovascular problem were hypertension (96%) and majority of the musculoskeletal diseases were joint pain (79%). It is necessary to have a knowledge of the recent trends of diseases in the area as reliable information on health problems of a population is an essential prerequisite for formulating health-care system to address health needs.