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Poor awareness, treatment and control key challenges in diabetes reduction by 2025: ICMR-NCDIR Study

15 March, 2022 | Vaishali Sharma

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According to researchers at the Indian Council of Medical Research-National Centre for Disease Informatics (ICMR-NCDIR), Bengaluru, the prevalence of diabetes and impaired fasting glucose is high a...

According to researchers at the Indian Council of Medical Research-National Centre for Disease Informatics (ICMR-NCDIR), Bengaluru, the prevalence of diabetes and impaired fasting glucose is high among adults, but awareness, treatment, and control are still low in India, according to a paper published in the international journal Frontiers in Public Health on March 14 that provides a comprehensive picture of diabetes care in India.

The paper, titled ‘Diabetes Care Cascade in India’ provides empirical evidence to strengthen diabetes care in the country and publishes assessment results from the National NCD Monitoring Survey (NNMS) on diabetes prevalence, prevention, and management services available at the public health facility.

The National NCD Monitoring Survey, led by ICMR-NCDIR with support from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of the Government of India, aimed to examine empirical evidence to address deficiencies in the diabetic care cascade, identify disadvantaged population groups with diabetes, and track initiatives to reduce the growing burden of diabetes by 2025.

As part of this, 9,721 adults aged 18-69 years were surveyed across the country in 2017-18. The survey revealed that diabetes was more prevalent in women and in urban adults. Older age, obesity, raised blood pressure and high cholesterol were all observed to be key risk factors for diabetes. The key findings from the survey include that 9.3% of adults in India were found to be diabetic. Among them, 45.8% were aware of their diabetes status, 36.1% were under treatment and 15.7% had their diabetes under control.

The prevalence of diabetes was two times higher in urban areas (14.3%) than in rural areas (6.9%). However, poor awareness and treatment among rural adults than their urban counterparts is worrisome, Dr Prashant Mathur, Director, ICMR-NCDIR and lead author of the study said.

Women had a higher prevalence of diabetes (10.2%) than males (8.5%), however the majority of women were recently diagnosed (6.0 percent ). Furthermore, diabetes was found in 44.2 percent of individuals with high cholesterol and 16.3 percent of adults with hypertension.