PHYSICAL HEALTH, DISEASES AND MODE OF TREATMENT OPTED BY INDIAN ARMY EX-SERVICEMEN: A SOCIOLOGICAL STUDY

The main objective of this study is to find out the physical health related problems of the retired soldiers of the Indian Army and the system of medicineopted by these veterans to solve their health related problems. Moreover, an attempt would be made to find out the reasons for preferring a particular mode of treatment. For the present study, data has been collected by interviewing retired servicemen (only non-commissioned and junior commissioned officers)through a structured interview schedule. To do so, 100 ex-servicemen were selected from the Khatauli tehsil of Muzaffarnagar (Uttar Pradesh) district using snowball sampling. Data analysis has been done through statistical techniques; like coding, grouping, classification, tabulation etc. Based on the empirical exploration, it was found that soldiers face more physical health problems after retirement. Among the physical health problems, the non-communicable diseases (heart, blood pressure, etc.) are more prevalent. Further, it was found that ex-servicemen prefer western system medicine in general and allopathy in particular.