18.9 per cent overall prevalence of diabetes in Jammu: Study

Jammu, Oct 20: The overall prevalence of diabetes in Jammu is 18.9 per cent, with an alarming 26.5 per cent in urban areas and 14.5 per cent in rural areas, a study had revealed.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), in collaboration with the Madras Diabetes Research Foundation (MDRF), has released critical data from the ICMR-India Diabetes (ICMR-INDIAB) national study, which includes data for Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

This first-of-its-kind study in the region also revealed that 10.8 per cent of the population in Jammu is affected by prediabetes, with 13.4 per cent and 9.3 per cent in the urban and rural areas respectively, emphasising the urgent need for action against the growing burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in the region.

According to the study, 40 per cent of individuals had undiagnosed diabetes and the overall prevalence of hypertension, generalised obesity, and abdominal obesity in Jammu is 27.1 per cent, 41.7 per cent and 62.7 per cent, respectively.

Releasing the data at a function here, Union Minister Jitendra Singh said the ICMR-INDIAB study is a landmark study, as it is the first representative research providing authentic epidemiological data on diabetes, prediabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and obesity across various states and union territories (UTs) of India.

“The data obtained through the ICMR INDIAB study in Jammu will help to estimate the health burden due to diabetes, prediabetes and metabolic NCDs, assess the level of diabetes control among individuals with self-reported diabetes and help in shifting the focus to the prevention and control of diabetes and other NCDs in the union territory of Jammu," he said.

"I congratulate ICMR for supporting this large-scale epidemiological study in the country and commend Dr V Mohan, the National Coordinator and Principal Investigator along with the Madras Diabetes Research Foundation and all the investigators for completing the study on schedule and making this valuable data available for public health researchers, academicians and the state/UT governments for planning preventive and control programs,” the minister of state in the Prime Minister’s office said.

The ICMR-INDIAB study is a comprehensive national survey designed to provide reliable data on the prevalence of diabetes, hypertension, obesity, dyslipidemia, and other non-communicable diseases (NCDs) at both the state and national levels.

Coordinated by the Madras Diabetes Research Foundation (MDRF), Chennai (National Coordinating Centre), and strongly supported by the ICMR-INDIAB Expert Group, this cross-sectional, door-to-door survey of individuals aged 20 years and above covered all 28 States, the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, and 7 Union Territories (UTs) in a phased manner, starting from 2008 to 2024, Mohan said.

He said the Jammu phase surveyed 1,520 participants across urban and rural areas, providing critical insights into the region's health landscape.

Mohan said the total participants screened for diabetes and other metabolic disorders in all the phases of the study are over 1.21 lakh, which makes it one of the largest epidemiological studies on diabetes ever done in the world.