India will have over 10 crore diabetics in 15 years, says WHO

NEW DELHI: India has done well in curbing stunting over the last decade, but the growing number of overweight people, particularly those prone to diabetes , may be a cause of concern, the Global Nutrition Report, 2016, says.Though still home to one-third of the world’s 159 million stunted children aged below five years, India has witnessed a sharp decline in the prevalence of stunting, from 48% in 2006 to 38.7% in 2014. Stunting, defined by Unicef as the most prevalent form of under-nutrition, develops as a result of sustained poor dietary intake or repeated infections or both.“There is real hope that India can become a major part of the solution (to malnutrition). It almost doubled the rate of stunting reduction in the past 10 years compared with the previous decade,” the report says.However, it also calls for urgent attention to tackle the rising percentage of the overweight in India, in particular the high rate of diabetes among them. It points out that the prevalence of adult diabetes in India was recorded at 9.5% in 2015, against a global average of 9%.According to the latest estimates of the World Health Organization, the number of Indians with diabetes doubled from 32 million in 2000 to 63 million in 2013, and is projected to balloon to 101.2 million in the next 15 years. “India is in double jeopardy. It always had under nutrition, and (now) there is ever growing threat of over nutrition and diabetes. Public health policies must be strengthened to fight both, particularly the latter,” said Dr Anoop Misra, chairman, Fortis C-DOC.The report also highlights India’s growing burden of non-communicable diseases. It shows cardiovascular disease patients in India spent 30% of their annual family income on related healthcare. The report, a peer reviewed publication, was produced by an independent expert group with members from several premier institutions such as Unicef and Johns Hopkins University.