An alarming study conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and published in The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology revealed that an astounding 315 million individuals in India are afflicted by hypertension, while 101 million suffer from diabetes. Additionally, the study indicated that 136 million people in India are in a pre-diabetic state, 213 million have high cholesterol, 185 million experience high levels of LDL cholesterol (commonly known as bad cholesterol), 254 million are affected by general obesity, and 351 million have abdominal obesity.
ICMR-India Diabetes Survey
The ICMR-India Diabetes (ICMR-INDIAB) study encompassed a survey of 113,043 individuals aged 20 years and above, spanning from 2008 to 2020. The survey included participants from urban and rural areas across 31 states, union territories, and the National Capital Territory of India, with 33,537 residing in urban areas and 79,506 in rural areas.
Researchers, including Ranjit Mohan Anjana from Dr Mohan’s Diabetes Specialities Centre and Madras Diabetes Research Foundation, ICMR-Chennai, stated that non-communicable disease (NCD) rates are escalating rapidly in India, exhibiting significant regional disparities. Their aim was to quantify the prevalence of metabolic NCDs in India and analyse variations between states and regions.
With the exception of pre-diabetes, all metabolic NCDs such as obesity, hypertension, and dyslipidaemia were more prevalent in urban areas than in rural areas. In states with lower human development indices, the ratio of diabetes to pre-diabetes was less than one. Furthermore, the study revealed that certain states, namely Kerala, Puducherry, Goa, Sikkim, and Punjab, had the highest prevalence of NCDs compared to others.
Need for Policies and Interventions to Address Rapid Increase
The study discovered that diabetes is most prevalent in the southern and northern regions of India, with higher rates observed in urban areas. In contrast, the central and north-eastern regions have lower rates of diabetes. On the other hand, high blood pressure is common in urban areas and across the country, except in central India.
The researchers highlighted that the prevalence of diabetes and other metabolic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in India is considerably higher than previously believed. While the diabetes epidemic is showing signs of stabilization in more developed states, it continues to worsen in most other states. Therefore, they emphasized the urgent need for targeted policies and interventions at the state level to address the rapidly escalating epidemic of metabolic NCDs in India.
