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Saturday, August 7, 2010

Utility pattern of Siddha Medicine in Fishing hamlet

Findings of the Health Survey and Utility pattern of Siddha Medicine among residents of Chinnandi kuppam. St.Thomas Mount Block, Kanchipuram District
Survey date: 6th August, 2010
Location: The survey location is the fishermen colony –Chinnandikuppam on the beach less than 400 mts from beach front and 600 mts from the East coast road at Vetuvankeni village of Injambakkam panchayat of St. Thomas Mount block of kanchipuram district. This kuppam has well laid internal roads with cement and good road connecting the east coast road.
Survey team:
Four Siddha physicians, five Post-Graduate Students of National Institute of Siddha, two interns and eight students from Sri Sairam Siddha Medical College took part in the survey. They were divided into eight groups each consisting of a Post-graduate and undergraduate student and it was ensured a lady is present in the team so that women members of the families freely interact with them. Five local community leaders helped the volunteers. The objective of the survey, modality was briefed to the survey team by CTMR secretary Dr.T.Thirunarayanan
Interview was conducted with help of the structured questionnaire followed by informal discussion. The date was chosen in consultation with the fishermen community leaders as all residents stay at home on Fridays due to lesser demand for fish. 100 households were covered in the survey.
Occupation of the head of the household: Over 80 % are fishermen, while few work as tailor, vegetable vendor, drivers, street traders, real estate agents. Most women members sell fish in the market.
Average Size of the household: Range from 3-9 with average of 5 members.
House: Most houses are with Reinforced Concrete Construction with 20% with kutcha roof. 80% live in own house. Almost all men involved in fishing own house, while people who work as vegetable vendor, tailor, book packer live in rented houses. Average size of house is 400 Sq.Ft. 70% of the houses have toilets. Kutcha houses do not have toilets.
Educational Status: Majority of the men over 30 years of age have minimal formal education (10th Standard) while at least 10% women are graduates and over 30% have
completed school education. The current generation most children are sent to schools particularly AMM matriculation school and many girls are graduates.
Habits: All are non-vegetarians and incidence of alcoholism is very high (50%) among men while use of Paan parag or smoking is less than 20%
Disease incidence: Acute : Frequent among children and rare in adults. Fever – Flu and Typhoid, Upper respiratory infection, jaundice, injury
Chronic disease: 20% Low back pain, 30% arthritis, 6% Hypertension, 10 % Diabetes 5 % IHD, 9% Br.Asthma, 5% Hemorrhoids. 3% Thyroid disorders 10% anemia among adults.
Two adults have undergone angioplasty in a private hospital.
Medical care used:
Majority use the services of private doctors and a few use Royapettah Govt. Hospital. (14 kms away)
Only 3% of the persons have taken Siddha, Ayurveda treatment
Less than 10% has awareness about traditional medicine- Siddha and Ayurveda
. Even among them there is no knowledge about where to get treated. Some women who are educated have apprehension about safety of the drugs and concomitant administration of drugs.
Medical expenses incurred per month:
The expenses range from Rs 100 to Rs 2000 and the average works out to Rs 500/ mostly for young children and elderly.
Interest in growing medicinal plants:
Plants like Aloe, Tulsi, Cissus, Coleus aromaticus, Cassia alata are already grown and most would like to grow medicinal plants in pots.

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