Chennai
In the last one year, as much as 29 per cent of the users of online doctor consultation platform Lybrate had enquiries related to mental health. Other concerns included lifestyle issues (prevention) at 26 per cent, sexual health (24 per cent) and women’s health (21 per cent). The findings were released recently in a report titled ‘Health Issues topping minds’ covering Tier I cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, apart from Tier II and III cities across the country. With 70 million interactions in the given year, the data was collated from a pool of over 1 lakh healthcare experts.
Talking to DTNext, Saurabh Arora, founder and CEO, Lybrate, said that the Chennai findings revealed that the city was more aware of and more open to discussing mental health issues. “The numbers don’t mean that mental issues are more, but it is rather indicative of the knowledge and willingness to discuss the same. That is a very positive sign, given the reservations and stigma concerning the topic.” Apart from Chennai, Kolkata was the only other Tier I city where mental health topped the list.
He added that another welcome sign was the fact that women’s health featured among the top concerns. Interestingly, even in Kolkata, which is considered to be a city of empowered women, the share of women’s health queries added up to just about 18 per cent. Whereas in Chennai, it was as much as 21 per cent of the total health concern.
“It is a topic that only women would discuss about, whereas lifestyle issues would include queries by both sexes. This means it is being taken up more, even as the topic is not a priority for a large section in the country.”
Over 60 per cent of online queries to Lybrate originate from Tier I cities, with each of them having more or less an equal share.
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