• Majority (90.2%) were not in the habit of exercising. This requires attention as exercise is known to prevent noncommunicable conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, and obesity and steps to increase awareness regarding benefits of exercise are necessary.


• The percentage of current and past smokers are 26.9% and 1.5%. Close to one-third of the population screened are smokers and again requires urgent attention.


• Only 5.1 % of the persons screened were aware that they have diabetes. This values are less than the standard prevalence of diabetes which was reported to be 11.4% in a recent study and more likely represents lack of screening and awareness.


• Persons already diagnosed to have hypertension was even lower at 3.5% possibly due to similar reasons.Only a small minority (0.2%) were aware about presence of any other chronic disorders.


• RBG was > 200 mg/dL in 6.5% (n = 317/4848) out of whom 173 persons were not even aware about presence of diabetes. All these persons require urgent medical attention and were offered counselling and medical help.


• Majority (56.2%) of those with diabetes who were screened had RBG > 200 mg/dL. The findings indicate immediate need for optimization of glycemic management in persons with diabetes. All these persons were also offered counselling and medical help.
• RBG was between 140-199 mg/dL in 11.6% (n= 565/4848) of the population screened. Only 61 of these were already diagnosed with diabetes. The rest 10.4% (504/4848) could be having intermediate levels of blood glucose elevation categorized as prediabetes. This large group would also benefit from lifestyle intervention and requires screening and follow-up to assess for progression to diabetes.


• Thus screening for RBG could benefitted all persons with diabetes (n=256) by helping to assess their glycemic status and also all those who had blood glucose > 140 mg/dL (504 + 143). These persons would require further follow-up. This accounted for 18% of the population screened.

• Although only 180 persons were already diagnosed with hypertension, the screening identified 1522 (30.3%) persons whose BP > 140/90 mm Hg. This large group requires further confirmation of their hypertension status and were offered counselling and medical help.


• During screening only 33.5% had BMI in the normal range. 11.2% belonged to underweight category and 15.7% and 39.4% were in overweight and obese category. All persons outside normal category of BMI were counselled and offered necessary medical help.

Conclusion: We screened more than 5000 people majority of whom were factory workers and villagersfrom low socioeconomic strata having income less than Rs. 20000 per month. Only 5% ofthe attendees in the camp knew they had diabetes. This is far less than the national standardand can be attributed to unawareness and lack of screening facilities. More than 18% of thepopulation screened had a blood glucose > 140 mg/dl and could potentially benefit fromfurther testing. Besides, although 3.5% were about being hypertensive, almost third of thepopulation had high blood pressure. More than half the population was overweight. Thus,these simple screening steps exposed a huge burden of hidden disease.

This population segment also comprises of a major portion of the workforce of our nation.

Poor health leads to reduced productivity, absenteeism and increased healthcare costs for both the employer and employee. In India, nearly 3 out of 10 adults have diabetes or pre-diabetes. If undetected or uncontrolled, the disease can be life-threatening. Another silent killer is Hypertension. Nearly 4 out of 10 adults in India have this condition, whichunfortunately goes undetected in many cases. Therefore, this population segment is highly vulnerable and requires greater attention from the government and civil society.

The Project has achieved its goals of screening and counselling the population in order to prevent or manage these burdensome diseases. However, given that vast population additional such sincere and rigorous efforts need to be made regularly. Vision Mission Foundation sincerely thanks Century Plywood for the support in this noble initiative.