NEW DELHI – “India and China account for almost half the global incidence of diabetes,” says Sushobhan Dasgupta, Managing Director, J&J Medical India and Vice-President, Diabetes Care Asia Pacific as reported by The Hindu Business Line.
Though China may have off overtaken India as the country with the highest number of diabetic patients, there are high possibilities that India would soon snatch this title from China to be number 1 again in terms of the most number of diabetes cases.
As reported by the International Diabetes Federation, India today has 65.1 million people with the disease against 50.8 million of them reported in 2010. Rising obesity due to increasingly improper food intake and sedentary lifestyle is touted to be the main contributor for alarming increase in diabetes among people. Another concerning reality is the increase in diabetes in the rural areas where people are fairly uneducated in health-related knowledge, coupled with laxity in care taking and dearth of medical facilities.
Western food style comprising of fast-foods laced with high calories also finds a place in the list of the influencers for rising diabetes in India. A recent report from Standard and Poor’s rating agency, the fast-food market is expected to double in three years owing to the growing market share in smaller cities across India.
