Blood pressure and diabetes will be included for the first time in the National Family Health Survey-4, which covers 17,000 villages and urban units.
The project began in May 2012 and the results are expected next year. This year the survey will be conducted digitally, so data will be out within a year, instead of the usual three years.
A medical assistant holds an insulin pen administered to diabetes patients at a private clinic in New Delhi on November 8, 2011. India is facing a twin epidemic of diabetes and high blood pressure, doctors have warned, after the results of a countrywide study suggested that one in five people had both conditions. Photo: AFP/ Sajjad Hussain
The 15,000 interviewers and 3,000 senior-level officers will check the blood pressure of a person on the spot and record it. The blood samples to check diabetes will be sent to local laboratories; the results will be recorded later.
The randomly selected sample size of 25 households from each village and urban unit incl-udes all economic classes, says Laishram Ladu Singh, head of the department of mathematical demography and statistics of the Mumbai-based Interna-tional Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), which is conducting the survey for the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in most states and UTs.
“The results are used to plan and implement the required health facilities in centres,” said Fauzdar Ram, director of IIPS.