Morbidity proMorbidity profile of patients attending Siddha clinics of Primary Health Centres in rural Puducherryfile of patients attending Siddha clinics of Primary Health Centres in rural Puducherry

Abstract

World Health Organization (WHO) recommends mainstreaming of Complementary and Traditional systems of medicine as it is an affordable and culturally acceptable way of making heath care accessible to everyone. India is currently facing shortage of trained health workforce, especially in rural areas. One of the solutions suggested is to integrate the complementary and traditional systems of medicine as part of the Nation’s health care system. In fact, AYUSH clinics have been operational in many PHC’s in Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry for more than a decade now towards achieving UHC. Objective: To describe the morbidity profile of patients attending the Siddha clinics of PHCs in rural Puducherry. Materials and methods: A facility based cross-sectional study was conducted among the patients who had attended Siddha clinics at the 2 selected PHCs of Puducherry over a period of year. After obtaining necessary permissions, Centre-Based Health Records was accessed for demographic and disease profiling. Data was entered using EpiData Entry v3.1 and analysis was carried out using EpiData Analysis v2.2.2.182 44. Proportions were used to summarize categorical variables. Results: Among the 22069 people attending the siddha clinic, 10765 were females and 11299 were males. Majority are from the age group of 36-59(54.2%). There exists a statistical difference in morbidities with age groups and different genders (p value0.01).  Conclusion: Among the patients attending selected Siddha centres, the common morbidities were Arthritis, Bronchitis, Neuritis, Acid peptic ulcer and Skin diseases.