Tackling the diabetes burden

(MainsGS3:Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes)

Context:

• The long-term (2008-2020) study on metabolic factors in the Indian subcontinent as part of the ICMR-InDiab study estimated the country’s NCD (chronic non-communicable diseases) burden.

Key findings:

• It estimated that about 11% of the population is diabetic, and 15.3 % of the country is in the pre-diabetic stage. 
• As per these estimates, 101.3 million people in the country are diabetic, and in the pre-diabetes stage, there are another 136 million people. 
• According to the World Health Organization (WHO), about 422 million people worldwide have diabetes, and 1.5 million deaths are directly attributed to the disease each year. 
• Both the number of cases and the prevalence of diabetes have been increasing, and there is a globally agreed target to halt the rise in diabetes and obesity by 2025, according to the WHO.

 Implications of statistics:

• The thing with metabolic lifestyle disorders, is that with some attention, it is possible to ward off severe complications and a morbid state of life.
• It is also possible to ensure that the 136 million at the pre-diabetic stage do not proceed to diabetes.
• The anchor of any intervention programme should be ‘prevention’ in the case of diabetics with the aim to prevent the onset of life-threatening complications.
• And in the case of pre-diabetics, all efforts must be taken to prevent the progress of diabetes, and in rural areas, where the prevalence is still low, the aim should be to keep it that way.

Lifestyle modifications:

• While it is sensible to ensure that there are sufficient facilities to treat the complications, the sagacious approach would be to launch public awareness campaigns on using lifestyle modifications to keep blood sugar within acceptable limits and complications.
• Some immediate attention must be paid to promoting a healthy lifestyle that would lead to retarding the speed of progress to diabetes, or even prevent movement to diabetes. 
• Urban India accounts for 16.4% of the prevalence while in the rural population the prevalence is 8.9%. 
• Though the prevalence is lower now, this is an area where the possibility for prevention is greater. 

Conclusion:

• As traditional lifestyles change and more modern practices take over, it is essential to once again stress on maintaining a healthy diet, getting sufficient moderate to vigorous exercise and periodic testing for those with risk factors and after a certain age group, experts point out.