People live longer but...

A health survey across 188 countries indicating that 95 per cent of the world’s population has a health problem is perhaps a reflection of lifestyles because the two most common conditions suffered — musculoskeletal disorders and mental and substance abuse disorders — are not necessarily life-threatening. It is also clear that modern living may be taking its toll in terms of an alarming rise in the proportion of lost years of healthy life in the ageing population.

The nature of problems may have changed, as seen in the survey statistics. There is a lesson in this somewhere as rates of disability are declining much more slowly than death rates, which means that while people remain in better shape over their productive lives, they are paying for the stress of modern life in other ways. We must exclude substance abuse from the lessons to be learnt as this is strictly a manmade disaster.

Rising incomes have also led to better or more enjoyable lifestyles as a majority of the population has access to good jobs, holidays and leisure activities. What the study points to is the need for governments and people to look at health holistically. Of course, in India the accent has still to be on building health infrastructure. It is clear the private sector long ago overtook the government in the health sector, which means none but the poorest seek out treatment at the public health centres. It is up to the government to change this. But that requires heavy investment; right now, India spends less of its GDP on health than even sub-Saharan Africa.