It is disturbingly official now. With 101 million diabetics, India is  the diabetes capital of the world. Goa tops the list while Uttar Pradesh has the lowest prevalence, said the largest study conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research–India Diabetes (ICMR-INDIAB).

Published in The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology journal, it said that the number of diabetic cases has increased by 44 per cent in four years from 70 million affected people in 2019. The survey was conducted on diabetes and other metabolic non-communicable diseases in India.

In Goa, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Chandigarh, there are fewer pre-diabetes cases compared to diabetes cases.  The study said that 15.3 per cent of the population (at least 136 million people) is pre-diabetic - an individual who has higher-than-normal blood sugar levels but is not high enough to be considered a diabetic. A pre-diabetic is said to fall in the high-risk group of developing diabetes.

Conducted between October 18, 2008, and December 17, 2020, the researchers analysed data of 1,13,043 individuals, out of which more than 75,000 people were from rural areas.

Besides diabetes, lifestyle diseases like hypertension and obesity also showed a northward spiral. The study found that around 35.5 per cent of the people had hypertension or high blood pressure, and about 39.5 per cent and 28.6 per cent suffered from abdominal obesity and overall obesity, respectively. Around 24 per cent of the surveyed population suffered from hypercholesterolemia or high bad cholesterol levels (LDL).

Researchers studied the prevalence of major metabolic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) like diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, obesity and pre-diabetes from 31 states and union territories of the country. These conditions can significantly increase the risk of stroke, cardiac arrest and kidney disease.

Goa showed the highest prevalence (26.4 per cent) of type 1 and type 2 diabetes cases, Puducherry was a close second with 26.3 per cent and Kerala took the third position with 25.5 per cent of cases.

Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh has recorded the lowest number (4.8 per cent) of diabetic prevalence but had around 18 per cent pre-diabetics compared to the national average of 15.3 per cent. The study found that states like UP, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Arunachal Pradesh which showed lower prevalence had higher chances of diabetes explosion over the next few years.