The number of adults living with diabetes has crossed 800 million globally, more than quadrupling since 1990, according to data released by Lancet on World Diabetes Day, November 14.

In fact, the data put India at 212 million (up to 2022), followed by China at 148 million, signalling a reversal where India becomes home to the largest number of people with diabetes in the world.

The analysis by the NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC) with support from the World Health Organization (WHO), underscores the need for stronger global action to address rising disease rates and widening treatment gaps, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), the WHO said.

“To bring the global diabetes epidemic under control, countries must urgently take action. This starts with enacting policies that support healthy diets and physical activity, and, most importantly, health systems that provide prevention, early detection and treatment,” said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Treatment access

The study points out that global diabetes prevalence in adults rose from 7 per cent to 14 per cent between 1990 and 2022. “LMICs experienced the largest increases, where diabetes rates have soared while treatment access remains persistently low. This trend has led to stark global inequalities: in 2022, almost 450 million adults aged 30 and older – about 59 percent of all adults with diabetes – remained untreated, marking a 3.5-fold increase in untreated people since 1990. Ninety per cent of these untreated adults are living in LMICs,” the note said.

The WHO said it was launching a new global monitoring framework on diabetes on Thursday. This represents a crucial step in global response, providing comprehensive guidance to countries in measuring and evaluating diabetes prevention, care, outcomes and impacts. By tracking key indicators such as glycaemic control, hypertension and access to essential medicines, countries can improve targeted interventions and policy initiatives, it said. It also helps prioritise resources effectively, it added.

In 2022, WHO established five global diabetes coverage targets to be achieved by 2030. One of these was to ensure that 80 per cent of people with diagnosed diabetes achieve good glycemic control. Today’s report underlines the scale and urgency of action needed to advance efforts to close the gap, it said.

Related Topics