On World Diabetes Day, India Manifests Worrying Numbers

Sandipan Talukdar

Today is World Diabetes Day (14^th November) and it is no exaggeration to say that we are surrounded by people with complaints of increasing blood sugar levels and those frequently visiting diagnostic centers to check their sugar. Diabetes is no alien a disease in our society. Anxiety, sedentary lifestyles, work cultures, food habits, adulterations and what not to blame for the rising diabetes amongst us. But do we know the exact status of the disease as in how many patients are there in India or what share India has to the global tally or how is the increasing trend in the country? Well, Lancet has something to say about the numbers. The leading health journal of the world has published a research on the eve of World Diabetes Day with a Meta data during the period 1990 to 2022 from 200 countries and territories. 

Diabetes has rose by 10-12 percentage point in India in 2022 in comparison to its prevalence in 1980 among both men and women. 21.4% men and 23.7% women suffer from diabetes in India currently. The total number of people that suffer from Diabetes in India is 212 million or 21.2 crores. India’s share in the world tally of the diabetes numbers is around 26% or one-fourth of world’s diabetes patients are from India.

This is indeed a reflection of the concerning statistics of diabetes in India. What is more concerning is that the state of treatment for diabetes in our country. We are familiar today how dangerous diabetes can be if remains untreated. In such cases complexities may result in the form of Diabetic retinopathy, which is damage of the retina due to diabetes that may lead to vision loss or blindness; diabetic nephropathy or diabetic kidney disease (DKD), in which condition the kidneys are damaged that may eventually lead to end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) along with many other severe conditions. It is pertinent that early treatment is necessary in order to avoid the development of such complexities.

Lancet research revealed that around 62% of the diabetes patients in India were neither in medication nor they are receiving any treatment. This places India at the top position globally in terms of untreated diabetes patients. The treatment has only minimally increased during past 44 years.

India’s share to the global proportion of untreated patients of diabetes is around 30% which is the highest again. This percentage term in absolute numbers indicates that India has 133 million (over 13 crores) diabetics are untreated in India. China on the other hand has 78 million untreated diabetic patients, the second global highest. China has around 148 million diabetic patients. But what is to notice here is that the difference between first and second highest in terms of untreated patients is more than 50%. 

The increasing trend of diabetes in India is quite obvious which was 11.9% for women and 11.3% for men in 1990 which rose to 23.7% for women and 21.4% for men in 2022. The treatment coverage grows minimally from 21.6% to 27.8% in women and from 25.3% to 29.3% in men from 1980 to 2022. 

The increasing trend of diabetes in India is concerning but the situation of untreated cases is more worrying. The economically stable population may have access to treatments but the weak sections and the poor seemingly remain outside of any treatment paradigm. This is also reflective in the global trend where low and middle-income countries bear the brunt of having most untreated patients as the treatment provisions have advanced very nominally whereas the prevalence is more in such countries.