Research Article
Prevalence and Risk Factors Associated with Gastro-Intestinal Tract Infections in Sikkim
Tirwa Ranjan Kaushal1, RajapureVikram A1, Poudyal Hemant2 and Thakur Nagendra1*1Department of Microbiology, School of Life Sciences, Sikkim University, Sikkim, India
2School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
- *Corresponding Author:
- Thakur Nagendra, Ph.D
Department of Microbiology
School of Life Sciences
Sikkim University
6th Mile, Tadong, Gangtok
Sikkim, India, PIN-737102
E-mail: nagendra.thakur@gmail.com
Received date: August 17, 2012; Accepted date: September 22, 2012; Published date: September 24, 2012
Citation: Kaushal TR, Vikram AR, Hemant P, Nagendra T (2012) Prevalence and Risk Factors Associated with Gastro-Intestinal Tract Infections in Sikkim. J Community Med Health Educ 2:174. doi: <10.4172/2161-0711.1000174
Copyright: © 2012 Kaushal TR, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
The present study explored the association between dietary, drinking water, drinking (alcohol) and sedentary lifestyle habits with gastroenteritis in population of Sikkim. Data were collected with help of a detailed questionnaire from 2000 urban and rural people, aged more than 15 years. Our study found that gastroenteritis is widespread in Sikkim, with the most common disorders being amoebiasis, food-poisoning, gastric ulcer and cholera. The results show that drinking water and alcohol are major risk factors for gastroenteritis than food habits like vegetarian or non-vegetarian diet and working habits. Study also indicates the role of ethnic fermented foods in gastroenteritis, which needs further experimental validation.
