Around 30 per cent of the 445 million people with untreated diabetes in 2022 were in India, according to a new Lancet report. India’s count was 133 million, at least 50 per cent higher than that of China—the next largest population of people with untreated diabetes at 78 million for the year.
The report revealed that 445 million adults aged 30 or older with diabetes have not been treated with oral hypoglycemic drugs or insulin, with the 2022 number being 3.5 times the 129 million cases reported in 1990.
Since 1990, the most significant increase in diabetes prevalence was observed in low-income and middle-income countries, while the greatest improvements in treatment occurred in high-income, industrialized nations and certain emerging economies, particularly in Latin America.
These findings indicated a widening global gap in diabetes prevalence and treatment, with an increasing share of untreated diabetes cases occurring in low-income and middle-income countries, according to the study titled "Worldwide trends in diabetes prevalence and treatment from 1990 to 2022".
The research paper identified eight super-regions for diabetes prevalence. Between 1990 and 2022, the number of people with untreated diabetes rose in every super-region. In each of these regions, between 84 per cent and 97 per cent of individuals with untreated diabetes remained undiagnosed.
Notably, in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, more than 94 per cent of untreated diabetes cases were undiagnosed.
The study recommended that “expansion of health insurance and primary health care should be accompanied by diabetes programs that realign and resource health services to enhance early detection and effective treatment of diabetes.”
