- Friday, February 28, 2025
The study covering more than 113,000 people also found that around 15 per cent of Indians were pre-diabetic and around 35 per cent have hypertension.
By: Shubham Ghosh
IN A worrying revelation, a government study has found that some 11 per cent of Indians are diabetic, adding that diabetes, hypertension and obesity are much more common in the South Asian nation than previously thought.
According to Reuters, the study of more than 113,000 people also found that around 15 per cent of Indians were pre-diabetic and around 35 per cent have hypertension.
The study was conducted between October 2008 and December 2020 across 31 states and Union Territories of India.
“It is quite evident from the study results that India has a substantial population at risk of cardiovascular disease and other long-term organ complications,” RS Dhaliwal, chief of the non-communicable diseases division at the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), said in a statement.
ICMR, which funded the study, estimated that India, which recently became the world’s populous nation, is home to 101 million people with diabetes.
The figure is 36 per cent more than a 2021 estimate of 74.2 million people by the International Diabetes Federation.
According to the Indian government, unhealthy diets, lack of physical activity and harmful use of alcohol and tobacco are responsible behind the rise of cases of diabetes, the Reuters report added.
In May, India’s health secretary said that the “lifestyle of a large section of the population has become more sedentary than before” and that the burden of metabolic diseases was on the rise.
The US National Clinical Care Commission has also estimated that about 11 per cent of the country’s population are suffering from diabetes.
