A new study published in The Lancet revealed that India had the highest number of people with diabetes in 2022, with 212 million diabetics, followed by China with 148 million. The United States had 42 million adults with diabetes in the same year. The study also highlighted that the global number of adults living with either type 1 or type 2 diabetes has exceeded 800 million, more than four times the figure from 1990.
According to a report of Economic Times, “Of the 828 million adults with diabetes in 2022, over a quarter (212 million) lived in India with another 148 million in China, followed by the USA (42 million), Pakistan (36 million), Indonesia (25 million) and Brazil (22 million), according to findings from a global analysis published in The Lancet.
The diabetes rate among women in India increased significantly from 11.9% in 1990 to 23.7% in 2022, marking one of the largest rises globally. Among men, the rate grew from 11.3% in 1990 to 21.4% in 2022. Dr. V Mohan, a co-author of the study from India, explained that while there is no actual rise in the number of cases, the increase in reported figures is due to changes in the criteria used to calculate diabetes prevalence.
“With the use of fasting glucose and HB1C you get inflated figures. India therefore becomes the country with the largest number of people with diabetes much ahead of China, which is not a surprise because India’s population has overtaken China. Having more people with diabetes is not a problem, it’s only the complications due to diabetes that we have to worry about,” he said.
The researchers analyzed data from over 140 million people aged 18 or older across more than 1,000 studies from various countries. According to The Lancet, global diabetes rates have doubled from 1990 to 2022, rising from 6.8% to 14.3% in men and from 6.9% to 13.9% in women. With the added effects of population growth and ageing, this has resulted in an estimated 828 million adults with diabetes in 2022, a rise of around 630 million from 1990, when approximately 198 million adults were believed to have the condition.