A new study on diabetes prevalence, sponsored by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), has revealed that the number of persons with pre-diabetes in Rajasthan have increased faster than those with diabetes. The prevalence of pre-diabetes at 15.2% in Rajasthan's population is the same as that in 15 more developed States, while the persons with diabetes are lesser in number.
The ICMR-India Diabetes Study covered Rajasthan in its third phase through extensive surveys in both urban and rural areas, in which the data on demographic and socio-economic parameters as well as behavioural aspects, including tobacco use, alcohol use and physical activity, was obtained. The surveyors also collected information on family history of diabetes and heart disease in the cross-sectional study.
The project’s principal investigator, Jaipur-based endocrinologist Arvind Gupta, told The Hindu here on Tuesday that 5.7% of the State's population was found suffering from diabetes mellitus. “Though the average prevalence of diabetes in Rajasthan has been found to be lower than more developed States, it is greater among the urban, sedentary and high-income men with hypertension and abdominal and generalised obesity,” he said.
Dr. Gupta, who heads the Jaipur Diabetes Research Centre, presented the study’s results at the International Diabetes Foundation (IDF) Congress in Busan, South Korea, earlier this month. The five-day event brought together global researchers to tackle a broad range of diabetes issues, from the latest scientific advances to cutting-edge information on education, diabetes care, advocacy and awareness.
‘Worrying aspect’
Dr. Gupta said the high prevalence of pre-diabetes was a “worrying aspect” of the lifestyle disease, as the people with impaired glucose tolerance could progress to type 2 diabetes, unless controlled by healthy eating habits and regular exercise. The study factored in body mass index, height and waist circumference and also tested cholesterol for all participants.
The epidemiological study, which was one of the largest in the world, was designed to provide estimates for pre-diabetes, dyslipidemia, hypertension, obesity and the level of glycemic control among the confirmed cases of diabetes. The community-based surveys conducted by the field volunteers covered the adults of either sex aged above 20 years.
About 4,000 eligible participants were identified for assessment of characteristics during the study for multi-stage sampling. Among those found with pre-diabetes, 17.1% were in the urban areas and 14.7% in the villages.
