Source – https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/
Telemedicine platform Practo has witnessed a massive rise in queries related to obesity this year.
The company has noted a 550 per cent rise in such queries from 2019.
“This indicates growing awareness about the disease among people and an increase in the knowledge of treatments like bariatric and diets that are related to obesity,” Practo said.
The terms most searched on the platform this year include “obesity symptoms and causes, weight loss, fat loss, diet management, childhood obesity, COVID-19 and obesity and bariatric treatment.”
“The top searched queries give an understanding of how people are aware and concerned of problems like BMI levels, bariatric surgery and the various diets that came into the limelight over the past two years,” Practo said.
A majority of these queries were from Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Pune and Chennai. In non-metro cities, most of the queries came from Lucknow, Jaipur, Vadodara, Ahmedabad, Indore, Vijayawada, Nagpur, Guwahati and Ranchi.
The rise in queries related to obesity is due to increased risks posed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Covid-19 and obesity was one of the most discussed concerns in the last six months after several reports hinted at a correlation between the two. It was indicated that people with obesity are more likely to have other diseases that are independent risk factors for severe Covid-19, including heart disease, lung disease, and diabetes than normal-weight people,” read an official release from Practo.
“Another topic that gained a lot of attention during this period was childhood obesity, considering the fact that the lockdown has also negatively impacted diet, sleep and physical activity among children with obesity,” it added.
Dr Alexander Kuruvilla, Chief Healthcare Strategy Officer, Practo, said, “Obesity entails major risk in terms of exposing the patient to life-threatening conditions like cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, musculoskeletal disorders, infertility, and most often than not affects the individual’s mental and physical well-being. Maintaining a balanced diet, being physically active and taking a conscious effort to maintain healthy living will go a long way in the fight against obesity.”
“Timely intervention will help control the condition from becoming unmanageable and posing further threats, especially in cases of childhood obesity,” Kuruvilla added.