New age lifestyle afflictions in young adults

Reflective of a multifaceted and rapidly evolving urban, digitalized world, the past few decades have seen an epidemiological transition in disease patterns with a shift towards noncommunicable diseases. The youth are far more influenced and vulnerable to the consequences of a skewed lifestyle, societal pressures, and myriad fall-outs of technological immersion.

- DR ROHINI GAUTAM BAIJAL

Hence, there has been an alarming trend of growing numbers of young adults grappling with lifestyle-related health issues hitherto associated with middle age.

Lifestyle-related morbidity in youth is broadly categorised as noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and mental health conditions. Traditionally associated with older populations, NCDs are now manifesting in adolescents and young adults. The cornucopia of diseases that are catching the youth unaware are type 2 diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, certain cancers, obesity, nonalcoholic liver disease, and in women, Polycystic ovarian disease. Young adults are increasingly susceptible to metabolic syndrome, a cluster of conditions including abdominal obesity, insulin resistance, hypertension, and dyslipidaemia, which are precursors of cardiovascular disease and early-onset diabetes. Diabetes, in turn, is associated with faster progression of complications such as retinopathy and chronic kidney disease. The symptoms of these diseases are not initially obvious but present later with severely debilitating, long-term and life-threatening consequences.