India Inc keeps away from health checkups: Survey

NEW DELHI - Most employees in big corporate houses have never undergone a cardiac checkup and were unaware of their risk status, a survey report revealed Friday ahead of World Heart Day Sep 26.

The survey report was conducted by Max Healthcare, incorporates inputs from 1,000 employees belonging to various organisations like IFFCO, GE, JK Tyres, L&T, Eveready, Wipro, Hughes Systique etc.

Some of the key findings of the report are that 76 percent of the subjects had never undergone a cardiac checkup and 78 percent had no idea about their risk status.

The World Health Organization has defined ‘Corporate Wellness’ as the theme for 2010 ‘World Heart Day’.

Around 63 percent of those surveyed said they do not have high probability of developing heart disease though 20 percent of their family members had a history of heart disease.

Surprisingly, 39 percent did not think about a health checkup of their children and 11 percent had never got a blood pressure and blood sugar evaluation done.

Nearly 35 percent of them did not exercise at all and 37 did not follow a balanced diet.

Laziness (17 percent) and long working hours (30 percent) were the main reasons for people not following a healthy lifestyle.

“The basic objective of the research is to ascertain and evaluate how healthy, fit and aware is India Inc. when it comes to the ‘Health of their Heart’. Every question therefore is connected to ‘Heart Health’,” said an official of the hospital.