Prevalence of Lifestyle Diseases in Non-Acclimatized Lowlanders at High Altitude in subdivision Darjeeling district of Eastern Himalayan Region, India

Abstract

Background: Lifestyle diseases including overweight, obesity, hypertension and metabolic syndrome leads toheart diseases, increased risk for insulin resistance, diabetes and stroke. Obesity is one of the lifestyle diseases declared as worldwide epidemic which is a major health burden. The study determine the association of lifestylediseases with Body Mass Indexinnon-acclimatized lowlanders at altitude of 7500 ft above sea level and to estimate effect of altitude on anthropometric and biochemical parameters.Methods: The total of 300 male age between 20-57 years studied. The present retrospective study was done using Annual Medical Examination documents which were recorded at plains and at high altitude. The anthropometric indexes observed using Asia-pacific criteria from the World Health Organization and biochemical parametersobserved using metabolic syndrome according to the American Heart Association.Conclusion: The present study comprises of maximum cases of young adults at plains and middle-aged at high altitude. The maximum overweight cases were found at high altitude and general obese cases found at plains. There is a slight risk of hypertension and deranged lipid profile at this altitude but no risk of polycythaemia. The present study’s indicator of abdominal obesity at high altitude is the waist-hip ratio. Increase in altitude causes changes in body mass index, blood glucose levels and lipid profile. Additionally, positive correlation found between lifestyle diseases such as central or abdominal obesity(r=0.33,P<0.05) and diastolic blood pressure (r=0.19,P<0.05) with Body Mass Index at high altitude. The present study agreed with the various studies from India and abroad.