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Listen to Story India recorded the highest number of diabetics globally in 2022, accounting for over a quarter of the world's 828 million cases, according to a recent report by the NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC) and the World Health Organisation (WHO). The report, published in The Lancet , reveals that nearly 62% of diabetics in India were not receiving any treatment for their condition. The NCD-RisC is a collaboration of over 1,500 health experts worldwide who track non-communicable diseases.
Their latest findings indicate that around 212 million people in India, about 23.7% of the population, were living with diabetes in 2022. Yet, nearly 133 million of these individuals were neither on medication nor receiving any treatment, placing India at the top of the global chart for untreated diabetes cases.
In comparison, China, with a comparable population, had around 148 million diabetics, of whom 78 million were untreated. This stark contrast highlights the unique challenges India faces in tackling diabetes. The data, derived from 1,108 population-based studies covering 141 million adults, marks the first global analysis of both diabetes prevalence and treatment trends across countries.
Researchers found that, in India, the prevalence of diabetes has surged over the past three decades. In 1990, 11.9% of women and 11.
3% of men had diabetes. By 2022, those numbers rose to 23.7% for women and 21.
4% for men. Treatment coverage has increased only slightly, with women's coverage moving from 21.6% to 27.
8% and men's from 25.3% to 29.3%.
The report defines diabetes by a fasting plasma glucose (FPG) level of 7 mmol/L or higher or an HbA1c of 6.5% or more. However, it doesn't differentiate between type 1 and type 2 diabetes, though most adult cases are believed to be type 2.
The global surge in diabetes has quadrupled since 1990, with over 800 million adults now affected. Besides this, an estimated 445 million people aged 30 and older with diabetes went untreated in 2022, a 3.5-fold increase from 1990.
Majid Ezzati of Imperial College London, a lead author on the study, said in a statement that the issue is particularly severe in low- and middle-income countries, where young people with untreated diabetes face long-term risks of complications. These include heart disease, kidney damage, and even premature death. These findings underscore the urgent need for expanded access to diabetes care and treatment, especially as the condition continues to escalate worldwide, the researchers wrote.
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