People ofPunjabare not in the pink of their Health, according to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS). There has been a rise in the Percentage of those who are anaemic both among children and adults as well as increase in obesity in the last five years.
Almost all the indicators pertaining to the nutritional status of adults and anaemia among
the
Population have deteriorated since the fourth round of the NFHS held in 2015-16.
The Union health ministry released the factsheet fieldwork of which was conducted from January 5, 2020, to March 21, 2020, prior to the lockdown and from December 6, 2020, to March 31, 2021 post-lockdown.
As per the report, the percentage of Women in the age group of 15-29 years who are obese or overweight has increased from 31.3% five years ago to 40.8% in 2020-21 while the weight of 32.2% of men have been found ato be bove the advisable limits in comparison to 27.8% in 2015-16.
The data revealed that the number of anaemic children in the 6-59 months bracket jumped from 56.6% to 71.1%. Anaemia refers to a health condition in which the blood does not have enough healthy red blood cells. The percentage of nonpregnant women aged 15-49 falling in this category increased from 54% to 58.8% while in the case of pregnant women the count rose to 51.7 % from 42% in the last survey.
A significant drop has been noted in the knowledge of HIV/AIDS among those aged 15-49. Only 20.6% of women were found to be having comprehensive knowledge of the deadly diseases in comparison to 49.3% five years ago while in the case of men, knowledge dropped from 62.3% to 37.6
% in the latest survey.