An Assessment of Presenting Complaints of Patients (Tribal and Non-Tribal) Attending the Orthopedic Out Patients Department in a Tertiary Care Hospital

History: Orthopedics is one of the oldest medical disciplines, yet remains at the forefront of intellectual and technological development in medicine as we move into the next millennium and for good reason.
Objective: to assess the presenting complaints of Tribal and Non-tribal patients attending the Orthopedic Out Patient Department (O.P.D.) in a tertiary care hospital and the difference if any?
Participants: The data was collected in a pre drawn Performa from 292 patients who attended the Orthopedic (OPD) between 12.05.2007 and 10.05.2008 and analyzed. Out of these 292 patients 189 (64.72%) (75 male-39.68 % and 114 female-60.31%) were tribal and the rest 103 (35.27%) (55 male-53.39 % and 48 female-46.60 %) non-tribal. Variables: Tribal, non-tribal. age, sex etc.
Findings: Non-tribal females were more prone to Group-II, III and VI injuries while males were leading in rest of the groups. Regarding tribal male concerned, they were more prone to Group-I, III, IV, V, VI and X injuries in comparison to their female counterparts in group-II, VII, VIII and IX.As far as non-injuries were concerned 10.90 and 20.83% non-tribal male and female respectively found suffering from non-injuries musculoskeletal system diseases while amongst tribes only 2.66 and 1.75 % male and female respectively found suffering from non-injurious diseases. Regarding age and gender, it was noted that more proportion of tribal females belong to 25- 34,45-54 and 65 & above age group and male belonging to under 15, 35-44 and 55-64 years of age group received one or other group of injury while in 15-24 years of age group ,the proportion was more or less equal. As far as non-tribal concerned, higher proportion of males who came with injury belong to under 15, 15-24, 25-34, 55-64 and 65 & above age group thus higher proportion female belong to only 35-44 and 45-54 years of age.
Conclusion and recommendation: Higher proportion of non-tribal suffering from non-injurious musculoskeletal system diseases indicate that their life style are faulty i.e. their sitting and standing posture, Eating habits-consuming more fast foods, more salt/sugar/fats in diet, living sedentary life style resulting increasing number patient of diabetes, obesity etc. which ultimately fall in the group of musculoskeletal system diseases. Hence, authors recommend adopting an active life style and improving in eating habits like avoidance of fatty foods, less salt and sugar by all concerned irrespective of age and gender.