New Delhi: A pan-India survey on the burden of diabetes has shown that Meghalaya has the lowest prevalence of the disease.
ICMR’s (Indian Council of Medical Research) India Diabetes Study, a door-to-door survey of males and females above 20 years of age is the first national study by the government to determine the exact national prevalence of diabetes and pre-diabetes in India by calculating state-wise prevalence.
Discussing the findings on the occasion of World Health Day (whose theme this year is diabetes control), ICMR chief, Soumya Swaminathan said, “We have found wide regional variations in the prevalence of diabetes and pre-diabetes in India. Meghalaya has the lowest diabetes prevalence at 4.5 per cent, while Chandigarh has the highest at 13.6 per cent, followed by Punjab at 9.8 per cent. Pre-diabetes prevalence is also the highest for Chandigarh at 14.6 per cent and the lowest for Mizoram at 5.8 per cent.”
Findings show Punjab as the most obese and hypertensive on account of its prosperity and consumption patterns. Punjab has the highest prevalence of both generalised and abdominal obesity at 40.5 and 57.2 per cent, respectively. Four in every 10 (44 per cent) people in Punjab reported hypertension, the highest in India.
India has 60 million diabetics among its population of 1.3 billion (estimated national prevalence 7.8 per cent), and is next only to China. Half of diabetics in India don’t know their status, making treatment that much more difficult. Untreated diabetes can cause blindness, loss of foot, renal and heart diseases.
Women from Meghalaya leanest
Earlier, Health Ministry studies had showed that Punjabis are the most obese people in the country while men from Tripura and women from Meghalaya are the leanest. According to figures women everywhere, except Bihar and Meghalaya, are more overweight than men.
In Tripura, only 4.8 per cent of men and 7.1 per cent of women are obese while in Meghalaya, only 5.9 per cent men and 5.3 per cent women are overweight.
