The incidence of Type-2 diabetes mellitus is on the rise in the State, as per the findings of a 10-year prospective study carried out by the Medical Trust Hospital and Diabetes Care Centre at Kulanada, near Pandalam, supported by the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology (RGCB) in Thiruvananthapuram.
The study was carried out among community dwelling adults in two wards of Alappuzha district through door-to-door survey. Thousand adults who did not have diabetes in 2007 were subjected to the 10-year study in order to identify the rate at which they developed diabetes and other non-communicable diseases over the years, said G. Vijayakumar, diabetologist and chief of the Medical Trust Hospital who headed the study.
Of the 900 adults who did not have diabetes in 2007 and who could be followed up, 190 persons developed diabetes during the period of the study. This indicated that one out of every five persons was developing diabetes every decade, he said.
Prevalence rate
Dr. Vijayakumar said the present prevalence rate of diabetes in Central Kerala, as per the 10-year study, was 27% against the 14.6% in 2007. Similarly, the present prevalence rate of pre-diabetes is 30% against the mere 5% in 2007.
Dr. Vijayakumar said one out of every three persons developed pre-diabetes over 10 years. This meant one out of every two persons would develop either diabetes or pre-diabetes over 10 years.
The study showed that increasing age, having family members with diabetes, abdominal obesity, and overweight were risk factors for developing diabetes.
He said those with obesity were most likely to develop diabetes. Both forms of obesity, overall obesity and abdominal obesity, lead to development of diabetes.The study showed that nearly 50% of diabetes in community could be prevented by targeting obesity.
Abdul Jaleel, RGCB scientist; V. Raman Kutty, Arun Rachana, Sreeja Manghat, Revathi Vijayakumar, Leena Simon, Liss Maria Scaria, Aswathi Vijayakumar, and Ganapathy K.Sreehari, were the other members of the research team.
Growing health issue
“Diabetes continues to be a growing health issue and Kerala bears greater diabetes burden than other Indian States. Our research shows that diabetes cases are increasing at a faster pace compared to the previous data,” Dr. Jaleel said.
Dr. Vijayakumar said: “diabetes is the leading cause of many other serious health problems, including premature death, vision loss, stroke, kidney failure, heart attacks, foot problems, which can affect our economy very badly. ”
