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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Scientists sound diabetes epidemic alert -GS Mudur

Scientists sound diabetes epidemic alert -GS Mudur

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published Published on Sep 28, 2015   modified Modified on Sep 28, 2015
-The Telegraph

New Delhi: A joint study by Indian and Pakistani doctors has detected abnormally high blood sugar levels in six out of 10 adults in cities, indicating a "frighteningly" higher prevalence of diabetes or its precursor, pre-diabetes, than observed before.

The doctors, who screened 13,720 people aged over 20 in Chennai, Delhi and Karachi, have warned that the high incidence of pre-diabetes suggests millions more urban South Asians are likely to develop diabetes and its complications.

Some 61 per cent of those sampled in Chennai, 73 per cent in Delhi, and 47 per cent in Karachi had either diabetes or pre-diabetes, a condition in which blood sugar levels are abnormal but not high enough to count as diabetes.

"We're seeing frighteningly high numbers," said Nikhil Tandon, professor of endocrinology at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, and one of the study's investigators.

"The high proportion of pre-diabetes among people in their 30s is particularly worrying. Without good blood sugar control, many of them are likely to develop complications of diabetes such as cardiovascular disease, kidney disease or vision-threatening retinopathy," he told The Telegraph.

People with pre-diabetes may be months to years away from developing diabetes, but several medical studies have shown that they may prevent or delay diabetes by losing weight, exercising and cutting their intake of fat and calories.

An urban survey 14 years ago had shown the prevalence of diabetes to be below 15 per cent among those aged 20 or above in Bangalore, Calcutta, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai. Researchers say the higher percentages observed in the new study could be a result of either better sampling or a real increase in prevalence.

"Some numbers were so high, we were shocked ourselves," said Deepa Mohan, head of epidemiology at the Madras Diabetes Research Foundation and lead investigator for the study, published on Friday in the journal Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice.

In Delhi, the study found that 40 per cent of men and women aged between 25 and 45 had pre-diabetes.

"Whatever the underlying reasons, these numbers highlight the need for action by the government and individuals," Mohan said.

Epidemiologists believe that a combination of changing food habits and sedentary lifestyles are among factors driving the diabetes epidemic in India. Some researchers also believe that South Asians are more susceptible to diabetes than Caucasian populations.

The Union health ministry had in 2008 launched a national programme to prevent and control diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and stroke. It sought to conduct campaigns to promote healthy lifestyles and improve government clinics' ability to diagnose and treat these conditions.

But community health experts say the programme's outcomes, if any, remain undocumented.

"We need intensive, effective campaigns to promote -and policies to facilitate -healthy lifestyles. For example, (through) easy access to spaces for physical activity," said Dorairaj Prabhakaran, vice-president of the Public Health Foundation of India, a research and educational institution in Delhi.

Researchers say that the health ministry is unlikely to be able to comprehensively address the diabetes epidemic all by itself. "We'll need an inter-ministerial consensus and joint strategies to deal with the diabetes epidemic, similar to what is needed for tobacco control," Tandon said.

City administrations and urban development departments, for example, would need to make available parks or other spaces to increase what Prabhakaran describes as "walkability" of urban areas.

Public health experts say the agriculture and food ministries need to find ways, perhaps through a combination of incentives to farmers and disincentives to the food-processing industry, to increase the consumption of healthy food in preference to food that raises the risk of diabetes.

The Telegraph, 28 September, 2015, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1150928/jsp/nation/story_44993.jsp#.Vgiuo5c1t_k


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