1 in 10 People Diabetic in Tamil Nadu

A study conducted by the Madras Diabetes Research Foundation which was supported by the Indian Council of Medical Research suggests that 1 out of every 10 people in Tamil Nadu is diabetic. While every 2 persons out of 25 are in a pre-diabetic stage. This means that about 42 lakh individuals have diabetes and 30 lakh people are in pre-diabetes stage. The study also assessed the level of diabetes control. About 1/3 have good control of diabetes, 1/3 have an average control and 1/3 have poor control. Control of blood sugar is important, as it is the key in preventing organ complications which could lead to death. However the major concerns are low awareness and lack of preventive steps. In urban areas, for every 2 persons who were aware about their diabetic condition, there was 1 person who was unaware of it. While in the rural areas, this ratio was 1:1. It is also significant that in India diabetes occurs roughly at 35 years of age i.e. 10 years ahead of its occurrence in the West. The study is part of nationwide effort to study the nationwide prevalence of Type 2 diabetes and pre-diabetes in India. This will be done by estimating the State-wide presence of the same.

Additionally, the study also aims at studying the prevalence of hypertension and estimate the risk of heart attack. The study also found that the prevalence of abdominal obesity among men was 22.4% and women 35.3%. That converts to about 50 lakh men and 76 lakh women have abdominal obesity. Abdominal obesity was defined as a waist circumference over or equal to 90 cm for men and over or equal to 80 cm for women. The report also revealed that 27.8% of Tamil Nadu population has hypertension and 20.1% has hyper cholesterolemia. These two conditions are considered to be the pre-disposing factors for diabetes. This means that approximately 1.2 crore people have hypertension (high blood pressure) and about 86 lakh people have hyper cholesterolemia (high cholesterol).

Source-Medindia