Chronic Health Conditions & Public Policies

Chronic conditions are the health issues that require ongoing management over a period of years or decades. They include chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) but also a few communicable diseases and conditions (like disabilities) that lasts longer. The chronic conditions are on the rise globally and in India, where it has become a leading cause of deaths and disabilities.

PRIORITIES

TOBacco control

Road safety

Multisectoral Actions for Health

Tobacco Control

In India, 28.6% of adults and 14.6% of youth – in total over 26.7 crores (~ 266 million) are the current users of tobacco in some form. Tobacco use causes over 12.8 lakh (~1.2 million) deaths every year in India. Total economic cost from all the diseases caused by tobacco use in India in a year is estimated to be INR 104500 crore (~ 1045 billion). Tobacco use is a common major risk factor for chronic conditions, including cancers, cardiovascular diseases, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes. This thematic explores empirical ways to reduce tobacco use in India and the associated health, economic and ecologic burden.

Current Projects

NCD

DRITHI:Developing Research and action capacity in India To counter Harm Industries

NCD

REALISE:Realist Evaluation Advancement Lab for Implementation Strategy Explanations

Past Projects

Access to Medicines

Deciphering Epidemic of Epic Proportion

NCD

Anushtana: Scaling Implementation of Tobacco Control Laws

NCD

Comprehensive Tobacco Control Karnataka

NCD

Youth and On-screen Tobacco Use – Value of Media Rating System

NCD

Tobacco-Free Youth (TOFY): an initiative in rural Karnataka

NCD

Youth and Tobacco Use

Access to Medicines

Tobacco and Political Concerns

Road Safety

Nearly 90% of all road fatalities occur in low- and middle- income countries, which have less than half of the world’s vehicles. In India, one road crash happens each minute and one life is lost to road crashes every four minutes – with over 150000 individuals losing their lives in road crashes each year. Under this thematic, we explore how to strengthen policies for road safety and their implementation at different levels.

NCD

Safer roads Bengaluru

NCD

Advocacy for stronger road safety and transport legislation in India

Multisectoral Actions for Health

Health is seen as a dynamic state of physical, mental and social well-being. Health, especially at a population level, is impacted by several social, economic, environmental, cultural and political factors. Hence, enhancing population health requires coordinated actions across sectors, beyond just the healthcare sector. This thematic explores ways of engendering multisectoral actions for health and promoting health through public policies across different sectors (health-in all policy approach).

NCD

Health-in All and the Tribal Population in South India

NCD

Health-in All Policy and NCDs

NCD

Health-in All Policy and Tobacco Control

Updates

THE ROAD to SAFETY – Awareness program on Road safety

THE ROAD to SAFETY – Awareness program on Road safety

In order to create awareness among youth, especially college students, about the road safety measures and recent amendments to MV Act, Institute of Public Health, Bengaluru and HKBK Group of Institutions with the support of State Road Safety Authority had organized an awareness program titled “The Road to Safety” under the banner of the “Safer Roads Bengaluru” initiative at HKBK group of institutions on 18th October 2019.

The main intention of organizing this event at HKBK campus is that the selected campus one of the prominent institution at our selected stretch of road and has more than 3000 students studying on that campus.

Poster presentation, skits, role-play by students on road safety, quiz competition and road safety awareness session by traffic police were organized as part of the event. Former Home Minister and present Member of Legislative Assembly Shri. K. J. George inaugurated the event. The event was presided by Shri. C. M. Faiz Mohammed, Director of HKBK Group of Institutions. Dr. Thriveni B S, public health expert and member of the BBMP NCD task force, Shri. Manzoor A. Khan, Secretary, HKBK Group of Institutions were the other guests for the event.

Winners of the competitions were rewarded ISI standard 2-wheeler helmets from the Safer Roads Bengaluru initiative. Around 600 students participated in the event.

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SARC-CCT in Sri Lanka

SARC-CCT in Sri Lanka

Panelists Dr. Mary Assunta & Dr. Upendra Bhojani. Image credit: SARC-CCT The University of Colombo works systematically on tobacco control and was established as a tobacco observatory Sri Lanka in 2016. Recently, this observatory was expanded to the South Asia...

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Policy Roundtable: Urban Health Governance in India

Policy Roundtable: Urban Health Governance in India

Image credit: Observer Research Foundation Dr. Upendra Bhojani, India Alliance Fellow and Director at IPH, was invited to participate in a Roundtable discussion hosted by Observer Research Foundation (ORF) and World Health Organization, India in Delhi on the 26th July...

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Video on “Tobacco-Free Generation”

Video on “Tobacco-Free Generation”

"Tobacco-free generation" is a proposal wherein children born after a certain year grow up in tobacco free environments, with legislation in place restricting exposure, sale and use of tobacco for that generation. This is potentially a very powerful intervention, that...

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Chronic conditions are the health issues that require ongoing management over a period of years or decades. They include chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) but also a few communicable diseases and conditions (like disabilities) that lasts longer. The chronic conditions are on the rise globally and in India, where it has become a leading cause of deaths and disabilities. There are several factors implicated in the rise in chronic conditions, from genetics and individual lifestyle to changes in demography and the broader environment. Therefore, prevention and management of chronic conditions require an inter-disciplinary and inter-sectoral engagement.

In this cluster, we are specifically interested in how health policies and policies across other related sectors impact prevention and control of chronic conditions at a population level, including the major risk factors for such conditions such as tobacco and alcohol use, unhealthy diet and inadequate physical exercise. The cluster builds on the premise that broader social determinants of health operating at the macro- and the meso-level influence the individual behavioural choices (lifestyle) as well as shape the environment in which these choices are to be made.

Hence, our focus on public policies and intersectoral actions for health. In this context, we are also interested in studying the increasing role being played by commercial entities in shaping the epidemic of chronic conditions as well as the policy responses. The cluster aims to deepen our work on some of the relevant concepts/approaches including but not limited to ‘social determinants of health’, ‘political economy of health’, ‘health-in all policy’ and ‘harm industries’.

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