Thiruvananthapuram: In a significant move, the Kerala Government has announced a new program to detect and treat lifestyle diseases in adolescents. An online survey will start soon in government schools to identify students facing this issue. Training has already been provided to the personnel who will carry out the survey, and the necessary devices have been distributed to them.

The programme, ‘Sasradham’, is being implemented jointly by the General Education Department, the CDC (Child Development Centre), which functions at Government Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram, the Health Department, and the Department of Women and Child Development.

A survey conducted earlier by the CDC among Plus One students in 15 schools in Thiruvananthapuram district found that 8.36 percent of them had hypertension. Based on the report of this survey, the government decided to expand the program to the entire state.

For the statewide survey, 1.75 lakh higher secondary students in 820 government schools have been included. These students would be subjected to checks for blood pressure, weight, height, food habits, physical exercise, mental stress, and use of addictive substances, including drugs. The consent of parents would be sought before carrying out the survey.

School teachers and counselors will be engaged in the task. They have been directed to complete the process before November 30.

After the data collected is uploaded on the Sasradham portal of the National Informatics Centre, a panel of nurses under the National Health Mission (NHM) will examine the students who were found to be suffering from lifestyle diseases in the survey for confirmation. The students would then be given the necessary treatment at public health centers.

“CDC will monitor the progress of the health and treatment of these students for three months,” said Dr Leena Sumaraj, senior research coordinator at the center.