Non-Communicable Disease in Buddhist Monks: An Integrative Review

Purpose: Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) are associated with increased mortality and impact adversely on disability-adjusted life years (DALYS). In Asia due to the where there are limited resources this burden is pronounced. Buddhist monks have unique lifestyles that are shaped to support their spiritual practice. All Buddhist monks have restrictions impacting on their cardiovascular health. For instance, they are dependent on food offerings from donations and unable to exercise regularly due to the religion duties and obligations. Hence, Buddhist monks are vulnerable for NCDs which gradually developed in long term. Despite an interest in the health burden of NCD in Buddhist monks is increased, the general characteristics, prevalence and influenced factors remain unclear. The aims of the integrative review was to identify the general characteristic, prevalence, factors related with health outcome and burden of NCDs in Thai Buddhist monks.

Methods: The integrative review guided by the Whittemore and Knafl framework in 2005. The MeSH term,essential keywords included “Thai Buddhist monk” “non-communicable Disease” “prevalence” “chronic illness” “factor”. This review included studies between May 2006 and August 2018 in English and Thai language identified through searching PubMed, Science Direct, CINAHL and hand searching. The exclusion criteria are intervention studies, qualitative studies, literature review articles, unpublished manuscripts and conference abstracts.

Results: Fourteen articles were included the analysis. We found a high prevalence of NCD in Thai Buddhist monk including hypertension, diabetes, cancer, dyslipidemia, musculoskeletal problems such as back pain, knee osteoarthritisand foot and ankle problems, eye problems such as cataract and glaucoma, pulmonary disease, and overweight. The factors relating high prevalence of NCD included food consumption, activity of daily life and life style associated with religious practices. Buddhist precepts associated with health outcomes such as limited ability to selected foods, positioning on floor activities, limited physical exercise.

Conclusion: Buddhist monks are vulnerable to develop NCDs with complicated complication. Future intervention should focus on health education, holistic healthcare addressing both the individual and community level. The intervention should also emphasis the importance of community and population to concern about the prevalence of NCDs and burden on Buddhist monks and plan for the longterm management.