India seeing substantial rise of non-communicable diseases: Lancet report

Diabetes and prediabetes is a concern across states in the urban India

An Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) study on non-communicable diseases has highlighted an increasing trend of diabetes that may lead to increase in cardiovascular diseases among Indian population.

The study by ICMR and India Diabetes, which was published in the Lancet, has showcased the rising threat of non-communicable diseases (NCD) in the urban and rural population of India.

According to the study, there are 101 million people with diabetes and 136 million people with prediabetes, 315 million people with high blood pressure in India.

The study showed that nearly 254 million Indians have generalized obesity, and over 351 million have abdominal obesity in the study period.

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“The studies show that diabetes and prediabetes are pretty prevalent in India. The reason why we did the study is to understand how to prevent this and how to make changes in society which will reduce the burden of these non-communicable diseases which eventually result in high risk of cardiovascular disease, hypertension and others,” said Dr. Rajiv Bahl, DG, IMCR in an interview with ANI.

The Metabolic Non-communicable Disease Health Report of India was published in the Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology journal. It is the largest study of diabetes and other metabolic NCDs in India.

They surveyed 28 states, two union territories and Delhi across geographical, socio-economic and population for diabetes and other NCDs including hypertension, obesity and dyslipidemia (elevated cholesterol or fats in the blood).

General obesity is more than 25 percent in the southern and eastern states with the exception of Jharkhand, Bihar and Assam while abdominal obesity is high in all states except Jharkhand.

Diabetes and prediabetes is a concern across states in the urban region. Uttar Pradesh has the lowest level of diabetes among states of 4.9 percent.

The results show that 16.8 percent urban and 8.9 percent of rural population surveyed suffer from diabetes. In the case of hypertension, there is prevalence in 40.7 percent of urban and 33 percent in rural areas. Obesity and dyslipidemia also have a higher prevalence in urban populations than rural areas. The study shows women more are more prone to obesity and dyslipidemia. About 31 percent of females are affected by general obesity and 86.8 percent have dyslipidemia while the numbers are 25.4 percent and 75.1 percent, respectively, in male population.