Harnessing the Family Adoption Program for Opportunistic Screening of Key NCDs in Rural Populations of Northwest India

Background: Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) like hypertension, diabetes, and anemia are public health challenges in low- and middle-income countries. Opportunistic screening can facilitate early detection of these NCDs. The National Medical Commission’s Family Adoption Programme (FAP), which assigns medical students to rural families, presents a unique platform to integrate community-based learning with NCD screening in rural populations. Materials and Methods: This is a cross-sectional study, and this report analyzed FAP data. The data were collected using the Epicollect5 mobile application by students through house-to-house visits and recorded details on demographics, anthropometry, blood pressure, random blood sugar, and hemoglobin levels. Results: Of the 1415 individuals in the adopted families, records for 964 (68%) were entered and available to us. The data revealed a high prevalence of NCDs and nutritional disorders. Raised blood pressure was found in 31.9% of participants, and 16.56% had raised blood sugar. Prevalence of anemia was as high as 89% among adult females and 81.5% among adult males. Double burden of malnutrition was also observed, with 24% of adults being underweight, while 31% were obese. A high-risk waist-hip ratio was observed in 68% of the adult participants, indicating a risk of metabolic disorders. Conclusion: FAP, while integrating community-based teaching with disease surveillance, can serve as a real-world laboratory for early detection of NCDs and nutritional disorders in rural India.