According to the Thai Health Promotion Foundation (Thai Health), monks are at 78% risk of developing non-communicable diseases, with the key factor being that food offered to them during alms-giving is often excessively sweet, fatty or salty.
Between 2023 and 2024, the number of monks and novice monks receiving outpatient treatment remained consistently high at approximately 730,000-740,000 cases annually. The highest number of patients were among those aged 60 to 69 years, with a cumulative total of 545,781 cases.
Nationwide, between 2022 and 2024, high blood pressure ranked as the number one non-communicable disease (NCD) that monks developed which required outpatient treatment.
