Data | Persons with higher awareness about diabetes have better chance of beating the disease

A person with a higher awareness of diabetes has a better chance of beating the disease regardless of their wealth levels

Diabetes is often dubbed a rich man’s disease. Studies also show that lifestyle changes, which include sedentary work and poor dietary choices, often lead to diabetes. Data from the National Family Health Survey-5 conducted between 2019 and 2021 also agree with this hypothesis. The share of persons with high random blood glucose levels was lowest in the poorest 20% of the households in India while it was highest in the richest 20%.

Chart 1A shows the share of the women population in India which was neither on medication to control diabetes nor had their random blood glucose level >140 mg/dl, across wealth quintiles. A quintile represents 20% of a given population. Chart 1B shows the share of the women population in India which was either on medication to control diabetes or had a random blood glucose level >140 mg/dl, across wealth quintiles.

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While the charts do show that the hypothesis — the wealthier the person, the higher the share of diabetes incidence — holds true, the gap between the richest and poorest was not very high. Among the richest 20% of the population, 17% of women were either on medication to control diabetes or had a random blood glucose level >140 mg/dl. The similar figure for the poorest 20% was 10.6% —a mere six percentage points difference.

While the wealth of a person does decide diabetes incidence, another key parameter is awareness levels about the disease. Data show that, the more years of schooling completed by a woman, the lower the chance of her being a diabetic and vice-versa.

Chart 2A shows the share of the women population in India which was neither on medication to control diabetes nor had their random blood glucose level >140 mg/dl, across years of schooling completed. Chart 2B shows the share of the women population in India which was either on medication to control diabetes or had a random blood glucose level >140 mg/dl, across years of schooling completed.

Among those women who had not completed even one year of schooling, 17.4% were either on medication to control diabetes or had a random blood glucose level >140 mg/dl. Among women who had completed less than five years of schooling, the figure was at 19.1%. However, among those women who had completed more than eleven years of schooling, the figure was only 8.4% — a difference of 9% to 10% points.