12 minute read
Youth, Non-Communicable Disease, and the COVID-19 Pandemic
from You-wA-H
by schoolindia
Webinar 15
Youth, Non-Communicable Disease, and the COVID-19 Pandemic
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In 2011, the campaign for the prevention and control of NCDs was introduced as a priority activity by the United Nations. As global health priorities transitioned from the Millennium Development Goals to the Sustainable Development Goals, NCDs emerged as a set of conditions that have direct links to achieving goals and targets of the SDGs. It has taken a highly communicable condition like COVID-19 to highlight the dangers inherent in noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). These are usually bracketed away as previously underlying or pre-existing medical conditions when, in fact, they should be in the foreground.
This webinar-cum-panel discussion focused on:
1. Need of increasing awareness in students for NCDs like diabetes & hypertension 2. Best practices for curbing hypertension in adolescents 3. Physical inactivity & chances of diabetes during lockdown 4. Excessive binge eating and unhealthy diet 5. Collaborating with schools to reduce chances of NCDs
Our eminent panel which included:
DR. ANSHU SHARMA Senior CMO [HAG] and HOD NCD division & Biochemistry divisions at NCDC Delhi
DR. SHWETA KHANDELWAL Head of Nutritional Research and Add. Professor at PHFI MS. NITA ARORA Principal, Sri Venkateshwar International School (Winner of National Healthy School Award in 2019)
MR. OMAR MOHAMMAD Managing Director & General Manager, Roche Diabetes Care India
KEY TAKEAWAYS
DATA AND STATISTICS • The global goal is to bring down the mortality rate due to NCDs by 1/3rd by 2030, India promised to bring down this figure by 2025. • A study that focused on the mortality rate among the youth and adolescents due to
NCDs revealed that between 0 to 14 years, deaths due to communicable diseases were 81%, 12% due to NCDs and 7.2% due to injuries. Between 15 to 39 years, 29% deaths occurred due to communicable diseases, 34.4% was the death rate of noncommunicable diseases and due to injuries it was 36.5%. • There are over 78 million people with diabetes in our country and by the year 2045 we will be close to 134 million people with diabetes, making India the diabetes capital of the world. • Every 3 to 4 minutes, about 10 people lose their lives to diabetes. • Out of the 78 million people with diabetes, only 5% people are receiving the desired treatment. • There are roughly 96,000 children in our country who have type-1 diabetes. It is important that we educate our kids to live a healthy life and make sure that they do not develop type-2 diabetes. • We have also lost a lot of GDP because of NCDs. • 81% of adolescents do not meet the WHO recommended levels of physical activity.
WHO recommends 150 minutes per week of moderate intensity physical activities. • 5% children under the age of five years and approximately 10% of them are pre-
KEY TAKEAWAYS
diabetic and hypertensive. Due to the fear of the virus, people have stopped visiting doctors making it difficult to treat the NCDs. People have to go digital, take up online shopping and telemedicine for their safety. The youngsters can help the older generation. Over 50 million people have shifted to telemedicine of which 44% belong to small towns and cities. COVID patients with diabetes are more in number than any other underlying disease and they have faced more difficulty in recovering.
NCDS AMONG YOUTH AND ADOLESCENTS • Diabetes is a pandemic in slow motion. • NCDs share four risk factors: tobacco use, harmful use of alcohol, unhealthy diet and physical inactivity. These factors are developed at an early stage in life and therefore require a life course approach to prevent and control NCDs. • Access to HFSS (high fat, sugar, and salt) is much easier and affordable than healthier food options leading to higher health risks. • Children who achieve high marks tend to have higher blood pressure is for the feel more stressed about school work. We must work towards reducing this pressure. • Asthma, arthritis, vitamin D’s deficiency are also very common among school students. Schools have to take children out for playing so that they receive sufficient amount of vitamin D , 5 to 7 minutes spent in sunlight can provide sufficient amount of vitamin D to a child. • There is a very common problem known as psychological diabetes, in this the person may not have physical symptoms of diabetes but because the person is so under so much stress they may test to be diabetic.
INCREASING AWARENESS AROUND NCDS • Our lifestyle during adolescence severely affects our health as an adult. • YOUTH stands for promotion of NCDs prevention. Y - young ones as our ambassadors who can push the authorities to prioritise NCDs O - Optimal resources required on a sustained basis. U - unlearn to relearn. Be mindful of what we eat. T - Training opportunities and capacity building H – harmoniously solving the problem • We also need a “MIND” approach to fight NCDs and other wellness issues;
KEY TAKEAWAYS
M - multi-secrotality,
I - investment
N - nutrition and health surveillance
D - developing local solutions. Children must also take part in physical activities and look after their personal hygiene and get annual health exams done. We can follow a 9 to 1 formula that will help us lead a healthy life: 9000 steps a day, 8 hours of sleep 7 glasses of water. 6 minutes of 5 fruits and vegetables a day 4 minutes of break from any activity that you are doing. 3 main males and three small meals. 2 hours before bed without screens. 1 physical activity a day
ROLE OF PRIMARY CARETAKERS AND SCHOOLS • We must focus on the healthy growth and development of a child, children will automatically start securing better marks in school. • School should make sure that the food that is being provided in the canteen is low on fat sugars and salt. • Teachers must keep a record of the changes in the weight of the students and advise parents. They should be very vigilant and note every slight change in the behaviour of the child. • Children suffer from anxiety because of the differences between their parents.
Schools with a good health and lifestyle program help children overcome this anxiety. • Children should be empowered to guide their parents against substance use and abuse. • If a child comes and shares his or her problems with the teacher, it should be discussed with the school management and relevant program must be designed. • No parents or teachers should pressurize the child to secure good marks. • Students should be allowed to take part in as many co-curricular activities as they wish to. • Relationships among children leads to anxiety, they should be counselled for the
KEY TAKEAWAYS
same. Social media etiquettes also need to be inculcated. Parents should make sure that their child is getting involved with children of his or her own age group, getting involved with the age younger or older impacts the social development of the child.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION • Attention should be paid to the neurodevelopment of children for a better future. • There have been 7780 paediatric COVID19 positive cases globally. Many of these cases had underlying conditions such as cardiovascular diseases, immunosuppression and respiratory conditions. • WHO suggests that children below one year of age should have zero hours of screen time. • Research suggests that learning from the screen does not give an advantage to which child over the ones learning from the book. Verbal and childhood interactions help in developing the IQ as well as the language skills of a child.
SURVEY FINDINGS
More than 87% of the survey participants feel that COVID19 has had a direct impact on the availability of resources for NCDs. Close to 50% of the audience knew somebody diagnosed with NCD. Almost ¾ of the people believes that NCD’s have taken a backseat during the lockdown. Over 50% have thus notion that students are not being sensitized enough against the problem of NCD’s. Over 30% audience feels that unhealthy diets are the major cause for NCDs among adolescents, whereas 25% people perceive physical inactivity to be the reason, 10.6% claim tobacco consumption causes NCDs, and 30% feel there many more factors involved. More than 90% of the audience feel that NCD’s directly or indirectly affect mental health of adolescents.
Webinar 16
Road Safety Behavior during Covid-19: School-age Adolescents
Distracted Driving has been called as the new modern age epidemic, which is exclusive to the information-based, technologically-advanced 21st century. The United Nations has officially promulgated the decade 2011-2020 as The Decade of Action for Road Safety. Its goal is to stabilize and reduce the forecast level of road traffic deaths around the world. It is estimated that 5 million lives could be saved on the world's roads during the decade.
The sole statutory bill The Motor Vehicles Act 1988 had been largely ineffective and outdated until the Amendment came to the Bill in 2019. The new Act enhanced the penalties for driving errors and for road regulations. Laws have been strengthened relating to minor’s driving, license, change of address and obstruction of traffic.
It is the role of civil societies to bridge the gap between legislative developments and public consciousness. This discussion aimed to do precisely that.
Esteemed Panelists:
MR. RAMA SHANKAR PANDEY Managing Director, Hella India Lighting Ltd. & President CWC, Drive Smart Drive Safe MS. PRACHI GROVER -
MS. PRERANA ARORA SINGH CEO, People's Trust India, Consultant - Road Safety & Post Crash Care Chair Person, Vidya Bharati School, Rohini, Delhi
MS. KARUNA RAINA Associate Director, Policy Advocacy & Research, SaveLife Foundation
KEY TAKEAWAYS
FACTS AROUND ROAD ACCIDENTS • 1.2 million people die annually due to road accidents, while 50 million are injured. • The most vulnerable road users are children and the most common cause of death is unintentional injury caused by road crashes. • 40,000 road accidents happen in the vicinity of schools, making it a treacherous situation for school children. • Almost 50% people die on road because they don’t receive the emergency care. • Only 16% of the population is aware of the Good Samaritan Law. • Not even 5% of the individuals follow all the road/traffic rules. • Road accidents are the biggest unnatural cause of death. • Not all vehicles pass the fitness test, yet these certificates are issued to keep the economy running.
LAWS ON ROAD SAFETY • The Motor Vehicle Amendment Act, provides the following rights: • Right to Life; it gives protection to Good Samaritans, to promote helping road accident victims. • Right to vulnerable road users; provides protection to cycle users. • Right to children to safe commute; it has three important areas - child helmet; only 20% children own a helmet. Here, we must also look after the supply chain of the product. • Right to Transparency; through this the government tried to introduce
KEY TAKEAWAYS
contactless - electronic enforcement. • Right to Safer Vehicles, this is implied on private and public transport. The Supreme Court took a step to protect children, especially girls, who face sexual harassment on the road on a regular basis. The rules for school buses are included in the legislation; these cover the maintenance, GPRS, the background of the bus drivers etc. The government of India has ties with some insurance companies that help hospitals provide cashless treatment for the first 48 hours with limit on Rs. 50,000.
COVID AND ROAD SAFETY • To avoid issues of overcrowding, schools are going towards staggered openings where children come at different timings, this will ensure that all students are at safe distance from one another as well as minimise the communal spread. • Shared mobility has come down due to COVID resulting in more number of cars on the roads.
RAISING AWARENESS IN THE COMMUNITY • Just like social distancing has become a normal term, we need to normalise traffic distancing as well. • We need to take up community learning to spread the message about traffic rules just like we spread the message around for the coronavirus. • Children should be trained and made Traffic Marshalls to change the entire populations’ mindset. • Adult behaviour must be monitored and be reinforced positively and negatively depending on the case.
THE ROLE OF SCHOOLS • It is the sole responsibility of schools to provide road safety education to students, for which the teachers must be certified as road safety educators. • Schools should not use second hand vehicles for school transport and should annually have a vehicle fitness test. • Schools should raise awareness around the Good Samaritan law by training students in basic trauma life support and first aid. • A course on Road Safety and Emergency care can be introduced in the school curriculum, that can be taught over 6 months to a year.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
ROLE OF STAKEHOLDERS • Parents must own a child restraining system for their cars and helmets as well. • Stakeholders need to request the government to make available resources for the safety of children. • We need to make our roads more pedestrian friendly. • We also require a good emergency care system, for this, it is essential that the entire population knows how to give first aid properly to the victims. • An issue faced by someone who is trying to help a victim is, knowing which helpline to call. All helpline numbers can be accessed on the government website. • The corporate sector and NGOs can support the schools and raise awareness around
Road Safety
SURVEY FINDINGS
Over 12% population is not aware of the rear seat belts. Over 56% of the audience does not know about the Good Samaritan law. Two third of the population uses their or their parents phone while walking on the street. 97% of the audience knew the minimum age for driving Over 17% participants have not read the Rules of the Road Regulations. More than 80% of the audience feels that road accidents have declined since the installation of speed cameras. Close to 70% audience is aware of the green cross code for pedestrians.
