Sedentary lifestyle leading to critical illness: ICICI Lombard survey

Mumbai: ICICI Lombard, one of the leading general insurance company in India, has commissioned a survey on women’s awareness on health and critical illness. The survey was conducted with an aim to accelerate dialogue around various aspects of women being aware of their own health and wellness. The survey involved online quantitative interviews with 1000 working women, aged 22 – 45 years, across eight locations including metro and non-metro cities.

According to the study conducted by the company, 68% of women in metros feel that any physical activity/exercise is important in order to stay healthy. However, only 33% of women pay attention to their health, with women in metros having a major share. The survey sums up the high importance of physical activities amongst women and how there is a lack of awareness around the consequences.
The survey conducted by ICICI Lombard reveals one important aspect; women in the country believe that regular health checkups are not as important.

Astonishingly, 79% of the women respondents do medical checkups only once in two years. ‘Busy Lifestyle’ is a key excuse for women in metros to not take care, while, women in non-metro are under a pre-conceived notion (lack of knowledge) that they are fit.

The survey enumerates one important fact about the rise in critical illnesses in the country. Sedentary lifestyle, heavy work pressure, late working hours and poor eating habits were few among the many reasons which led to this rise. Speaking about critical illness – hypertension, breast cancer, cervical cancer and depression were the commonly known illnesses among the women in the metro cities.

Commenting on the survey findings, Sanjay Datta, Chief – Underwriting Claims and Reinsurance, ICICI Lombard, said, “ICICI Lombard believes in accelerating awareness around health and wellness. With this survey, we wanted to understand how conscious women are about their own health. The survey successfully captures the statistics on how women, even though, take charge of their personal and professional lives pay very little attention to their own health. The resultant survey also throws light on the need for frequent health checkups for women to maintain a healthy and a balanced lifestyle.”

A few other findings of the survey revealed that 88% states critical illness is increasing because of no exercise and only 6% of women have critical illness cover against 22% who have a health insurance.