The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Majority with chronic ailments try home remedies

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Aug 24, 2007
ePaper

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Majority with chronic ailments try home remedies

Study conducted by A.C.Nielsen carried out in seven cities

HYDERABAD: A study across seven cities found that 51 per cent of the people suffering from chronic ailments try home remedies, while another 30 per cent prefer to leave them unattended.

The study conducted by A.C.Nielsen and commissioned by Dr.Batra’s Positive Health Clinics Pvt.Ltd. (DBPHCPL), was carried out in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chandigarh. It sought, among other things, to understand the patient psychographics regarding chronic ailments and determine the psychographics of conventional treatment versus homoeopathy.

Releasing the details of the study at a press conference here on Thursday, DBPHCPL’s Chairman-cum-Managing Director Mukesh Batra said that 81 per cent of people suffering from chronic ailments either self-medicate or do not seek treatment at all.

It was found that among those who resorted to medical intervention, 47 per cent visited general practitioner/ family doctor, 18 per cent opted for conventional treatment and 34 per cent chose homeopathy.

It highlighted that while people chose conventional medicine because it enjoys top-of-mind recall (59 per cent ) and has immediate results (56 per cent), they opted for homoeopathy because it is safe (53 per cent) and recommended by friends and relatives (50 per cent). It found that 82 per cent of homoeopathy users would not switch to conventional treatments.

Dr.Batra said the homeopathy market in the country was around Rs.630 crores and growing by 20 per cent to 25 per cent annually. The world market of homeopathic drugs was about Rs.8,400 crore and this was expected to touch Rs.52,000 crore by 2017 with India accounting for Rs.5,800 crore.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail