ICMR-INDIAB-17 study

Non communicable diseases like Diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular diseases (such as heart attacks and stroke), chronic respiratory diseases (such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma) are rapidly increasing in India. The Indian Council of Medical Research-India Diabetes (ICMR-INDIAB) study studied 113043 people from urban and rural India. The researchers diagnosed Diabetes and prediabetes using the WHO criteria, hypertension using the Eighth Joint National Committee guidelines, obesity (generalised and abdominal) using the WHO Asia Pacific guidelines, and dyslipidaemia using the National Cholesterol Education ProgramAdult Treatment Panel III guidelines.

The findings showed that 11.4 per cent of the participants had Diabetes, 15.3 per cent had prediabetes, 35.3 per cent had hypertension (high blood pressure), 28.6 per cent had generalised obesity, 39.5 per cent had abdominal obesity and 81.2 per cent had dyslipidaemia (high cholesterol levels).

There was a higher instance of metabolic non communicable disease in urban areas. Only prediabetes was found to be higher in rural areas. The researchers concluded that Diabetes and other metabolic non communicable diseases were far more prevalent in India than previously estimated.

The study also showed that while Diabetes had peaked in some of the more developed states, most of the less developed states were still in the initial take-off phase. Obesity, hypertension and dyslipidaemia were high throughout the country, especially in urban India. The researchers highlighted that it was important to arrest the transition from prediabetes to Diabetes in states where the Diabetes epidemic had yet to peak. The study also underlined the importance of providing optimal care to people who had transitioned to Type 2 Diabetes in order to prevent risk of Diabetes related complications affecting the heart, feet, eyes, kidney and blood circulation.

Source: Lancet Diabetes Endocrinology, 2023