Indian Journal of Science and Technology
DOI: 10.17485/ijst/2019/v12i20/144700
Year: 2019, Volume: 12, Issue: 20, Pages: 1-5
Original Article
S. Jothi Lakshmi1, Santu Ghosh5, Padmavathi Ramaswamy2, Shriraam Mahadevan3 and Krishnendu Mukhopadhya4*
1Faculty of Public Health, Department of Environmental Health Engineering, Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research (Deemed to be University), Chennai - 600116, Tamil Nadu, India; [email protected]
2Department of Physiology, Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research (Deemed to be University), Chennai - 600116, Tamil Nadu, India; [email protected] 3Department of Endocrinology, Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research (Deemed to be University), Chennai - 600116, Tamil Nadu, India; [email protected]
4Department of Environmental Health Engineering, Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research (Deemed to be University), Chennai - 600116, Tamil Nadu, India; [email protected]
5Department of Biostatistics, St John’s Medical College, Bangalore - 560034, Karnataka, India; [email protected]
*Author for correspondence
Krishnendu Mukhopadhya
Department of Environmental Health Engineering, Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research (Deemed to be University), Chennai - 600116, Tamil Nadu, India. Email: [email protected]
Introduction: Diabetes mellitus is one of the metabolic disorders that have multi-factorial pathogenesis. Diabetes is a chief public health issue being suffered by 415 million adults (aged 20-79 years) worldwide as evidenced in 2015. Evidence from the studies recommends that environmental contaminants including insecticides might play a significant role in diabetic pathogenesis. The present study aims to evaluate the relation between OP applicators and incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Methods: The study was conducted in 19 rural health centers of Theni District, Tamil Nadu in India. A total of 102 pesticide applicators were recruited for the study. History of occupational pesticide applicators was collected by using questionnaires and HbA1c levels (>6.5%) in pesticide applicators were confirmed as diabetic. Result: Among the pesticide applicators, the prevalence of diabetes was found to be 39(38.24%) among pesticide applicators and only 9 (10.47%) were found to have the family history of diabetes. Risk factors including blood pressure, smoking habit and alcohol drinking were found to be noticeably high with 34 (33.33%), 59 (57.84%), 45 (44.12%), respectively. Conclusion: Our study revealed that the prevalence of diabetes among OP pesticide applicators was higher. The findings of the present study may attract the policymakers to develop a control mechanism against the pesticide-exposed rural population. The variance is deliberated to be explainable by the subject discrepancy regarding safety practices, health background, and nutritional status.
Keywords: Diabetes Mellitus, Occupation, Organophosphate, Pesticide Applicators
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