NEW DELHI: Prevalence of diabetes in India has been recorded at 11.8% in the last four years with almost same percentage of men and women suffering from the disease which is often called a silent killer, shows the latest National Diabetes and Diabetic Retinopathy Survey report for 2015-19.

The findings also show prevalence of known diabetes cases was 8% and new diabetes cases at 3.8%.

The prevalence of diabetes among males was 12%, whereas among females it was 11.7%. Highest prevalence of diabetes (13.2%) was observed in the 70-79 years’ age group.

The survey - conducted during 2015-2019 by Rajendra Prasad Centre for Ophthalmic Sciences , All India Institute of Medical Sciences (New Delhi) and released by the health ministry on Thursday - had a sample size of 63000 enumerated population aged 50 years and above in 21 districts. Of this, 56771 or 90.1% were assessed for diabetes.

The survey also assessed diabetic retinopathy among the respondents. The prevalence of any form of diabetic retinopathy (DR) in diabetic population aged up to 50 years was found to be 16.9%.

The findings show mild retinopathy was most common with prevalence of 11.8%, whereas 7% participants had some form of diabetic maculopathy. The prevalence of sight threatening diabetic retinopathy was 3.6%.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), there are estimated 72.96 million cases of diabetes in adult population of India. The prevalence in urban areas ranges between 10.9%-14.2% and prevalence in rural India is at 3.0-7.8% among population aged 20 years and above with a much higher prevalence among individuals aged over 50 years.

Globally, prevalence of diabetes among adults over 18 years of age was estimated at 8.5% in 2014.

Diabetes and diabetic retinopathy have been emerging as a significant non-communicable disease leading to ocular morbidity (blindness). It is estimated that diabetic retinopathy was responsible for 1.06% of blindness and 1.16% of visual impairment globally in 2015.

"Unfortunately, diabetes eye disease is given least importance by the patients and even physicians. Retina of eye should be checked once a year in every patient with diabetes to detect early damage and avoid sight threatening retinopathy and dangerous macula swelling as seen in about 10% of patients in the current study," says Dr Anoop Misra, leading endocrinologist and Chairman of Fortis C-Doc.

In the absence of any recent studies on the prevalence of diabetic retinopathy in different parts of the country, it is a challenge for the government to identify where DR screening and treatment programmes are most needed.

"The present survey was therefore planned to estimate the burden of diabetic retinopathy in the population aged ≥50 years for assisting the planning and prioritisation of diabetic eye services," the report said.

According to the survey findings, the prevalence of DR in the 60-69 years age group was 18.6%, 70-79 years was 18.3% and among more than 80 years was 18.4% while a lower prevalence of 14.3% was observed in the 50-59 years age group.

Prevalence of blindness among diabetics was 2.1% and visual impairment was 13.7%.

