Data | High burden of diabetes and BP in Kerala and West Bengal Premium

The prevalence of non-communicable diseases was much higher in urban areas

The results of an Indian Council of Medical Research–India Diabetes (ICMR-INDIAB) study published recently in The Lancet show concerning levels of diabetes, hypertension, abdominal obesity and hypertriglyceridemia in India. More importantly, such high levels of disease prevalence were observed across the rural and urban regions of many States.

It must be noted that the burden of the above-mentioned non-communicable diseases and adverse health conditions is not equally high across all States. For instance, the prevalence of diseases such as diabetes was relatively low in rural Uttar Pradesh (0-4.9%). However, the region saw a relatively high prevalence of hypertriglyceridemia (≥25%) and abdominal obesity (≥25%). Similarly, in rural Gujarat, diabetes prevalence was relatively low (5-7.4%) whereas hypertension prevalence was relatively high (≥30%).

What is more worrying is that in some States (Kerala, West Bengal, Sikkim and Goa), the burden of all four — the two diseases and the two adverse conditions — was alarmingly high. In these States, there was a relatively high prevalence of diabetes (>10%), hypertension (≥30%), abdominal obesity (≥25%) and hypertriglyceridemia (≥20%). The authors of the paper have cited the wide variations among States in disease burden and have called for State-specific policies and interventions rather than a blanket approach.

The survey was conducted between November 2008 and December 2020 across 31 States and Union Territories among 1,19,022 individuals who were 20 years or older. Some States such as Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra were surveyed between 2008 and 2010, while others such as West Bengal and Odisha were surveyed between 2019 and 2020.

Map 1 | The map shows the prevalence of diabetes

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Map 2 | The map shows the prevalence of hypertension