Social determinants of health-Next forefront of reducing the enormous burden of CVD: Dr Sushil

STATE TIMES NEWS

JAMMU: In view of very less awareness regarding the social domain of cardiovascular health among masses Head Department of Cardiology GMCH Jammu Dr Sushil Sharma held a day long Cardiac awareness cum health checkup camp at Panchayat Panj Grain, Block Nagrota , Jammu in order to enlighten people about the social equality and its long term impact in reducing cardiac morbidity and mortality. While interacting with the people, Dr Sushil stated that cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of mortality worldwide. Addressing social determinants of health may be the next forefront of reducing the enormous burden of CVD. SDoH can be defined as any social, economic, or environmental factor that influences a health outcome. Comprehensive evidence of the role of Social Determinant in CVD is lacking, nevertheless. There has been increasing recognition that social determinants of health (SDoH) significantly contribute to morbidity, mortality, and health inequality.
According to the World Health Organization, SDoH are any situation or circumstance in which individuals are born, grow, live, work, and age. SDoH can also be described as any environmental factor that affects a person’s health, quality of life, or the progression of a disease in a complex and interconnected manner.
He elaborated that despite significant advancements; gross inequalities continue to persist over space and time. Although increasing at different rates worldwide, the magnitude of increase in the prevalence of various cardiovascular risk factors has shifted research efforts to study the causes of the risk factors (ie, the ’causes of the causes’), which include the social determinants of health.
The social determinants of health reflect the impact of the social environment on health among people sharing a particular community. Imbalances in the social determinants of health have been attributed to the inequities in health observed between and within countries.
He added that the issue of social determinants is especially necessary to assess in women of diverse races and ethnicities, as racial and ethnic diversity is currently lacking in patient data registries where data for CVD assessment is gathered.
Dr Sushil Sharma, while sharing his opinion, told that there is overwhelming evidence that SDoH are important contributors to CVD and CVD mortality. There is consistent evidence that economic circumstance and early childhood development themes play a role in CVD and CVD mortality. Specifically, childhood adverse events, childhood abuse or neglect, childhood SES, neighborhood SES, violence, environmental attributes, education, income, occupation, food insecurity, homelessness, composite SES, social role, social isolation, loneliness, ethnicity, and discrimination play roles in CVD and CVD mortality. He further elaborated that detecting and addressing SDoH will likely benefit CVD risk factors and outcomes. This evidence should be used to inform CVD prevention policies and interventions through each stage of development, including selection of targeted subpopulations. Given that the identified SDoH factors are interconnected with each other and other CVD risk factors.
Prominent members of the area Thoru Ram (Sarpanch), Ramesh Singh (Panch), Prem Nath (Panch), Yashpal (Panch), Kishore Kumar (Panch), Davinder Singh and Ram Gopal appreciated the efforts of Dr Sushil and his team for conducting cardiac awareness cum health checkup camp in their locality for the welfare of people and the society . Others who were part of this Camp includes Dr Yashwant Sharma and Dr Devinder Singh. Paramedics and volunteers includes Kamal Sharma, Raghav Rajput, Rajkumar, Rajinder Singh, Mukesh Kumar, Gourav Sharma, Jatin Bhasin, Vikas Kumar, Rohit Nayyar, Arun Singh, Maninder Singh, Rahul Vaid, Amish Jamwal and Aman Gupta.