A recent study by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has revealed that a staggering 315 million people in India suffer from hypertension, with an additional 101 million afflicted by diabetes. The study, which was published in The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology, also revealed that 136 million Indians are pre-diabetic, and 213 million people live with high cholesterol. Additionally, 185 million suffer from high LDL cholesterol (the ‘bad’ cholesterol), 254 million live with generalised obesity and 351 million have abdominal obesity.
The study was conducted over 12 years, from 2008 to 2020, on a sample of 1,13,043 individuals across 31 states, union territories and the National Capital Territory of India. The survey covered both urban and rural areas, with 33,537 urban and 79,506 rural participants surveyed. The study aimed to quantify the prevalence of metabolic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in India, analysing interstate and inter-regional variations.
Researchers found that all metabolic NCDs, such as obesity, hypertension, and dyslipidaemia, except prediabetes, were more frequently observed in urban than rural areas. Moreover, they discovered that in some states with a lower human development index, the ratio of diabetes to prediabetes was less than one. Kerala, Puducherry, Goa, Sikkim and Punjab were revealed to have the highest prevalence of NCDs as compared to other states.
The study identified that the prevalence of diabetes was highest in the southern and northern regions of India, with urban areas having a high incidence rate. Conversely, lower prevalence was observed in the central and northeastern regions. High blood pressure was highly prevalent in urban areas and across the country, except central India.
In conclusion, the researchers noted that the prevalence of diabetes and other metabolic NCDs in India is considerably higher than previously estimated. While the diabetes epidemic is stabilising in more developed states, it is still increasing in most other states. As such, the researchers called for urgent state-specific policies and interventions to arrest the rapidly rising epidemic of metabolic NCDs in India.
