PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Komalkirti Apte
AU  - Monica Barne
AU  - Sapna Madas
AU  - Jaideep Gogtay
AU  - Sushmeeta Chhowala
AU  - Nadar Mahajan
AU  - Sundeep Salvi
TI  - Obstructive airways diseases (OADs) are the most common diseases for a doctor visit in India: A one-day point-prevalence study in 2,04,912 patients from 880 cities and towns in India
DP  - 2012 Sep 01
TA  - European Respiratory Journal
PG  - P4755
VI  - 40
IP  - Suppl 56
4099  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/40/Suppl_56/P4755.short
4100  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/40/Suppl_56/P4755.full
SO  - Eur Respir J2012 Sep 01; 40
AB  - An understanding of the most common diseases for which a patient visits a doctor in India will help set up appropriate health care services. We aimed to study the most common doctor-diagnosed disease for which a patient visits a general practitioner (GPs), general physician (Gen Ps) and pediatricians (Ps) in India, using a 1-day point prevalence cross-sectional study design. Method: 13,225 GPs, Gen Ps and Ps from 22 states and 5 union territories across India were randomly selected from 880 cities and towns and invited to participate in a 1-day point-prevalence study. On 1st Feb 2011 those doctors who agreed to participate kept a record of all symptoms and diagnosis for which patients visited their clinic or hospital. 7710 doctors consented and clean data was obtained from 7400 doctors (65% GPs, 17.4%Gen Ps, and 17.6% Ps). Data was transferred into Epi-Info software and simple descriptive analysis was performed. Results: A total of 2,04,912 patients visited 7400 GPs, Gen Ps and Ps in India on 1 day. Amongst these, 16,783 patients visited a doctor for a diagnosis of asthma or COPD accounting for the highest number of visits (8.2%). Systemic hypertension (HT), anemia, diabetes and eczema accounted for 7.8%, 5.5%, 4.8% and 2.3% of the visits respectively. These observations were generally uniform across India, with no disease hot or cold spot regions. Conclusion: Extrapolating the above figures to around 15,00,000 registered GPs, GenPs and Ps in India, 3.5 million (m) patients visit a doctor every day in India for OADs, followed by 3.3 m for HT, 2.3 m for anemia, 2 m for diabetes and 1 m for eczema.