Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Diabetes cases up in rural areas

CHENNAI: A significant increase in diabetes has been recorded in rural areas, coinciding with a rise in urban and semi-urban areas, the results of a recent study published in the May issue of Diabetes Care have revealed.

The study was conducted in a metro (Chennai), a town (Kancheepuram) and a village (Panruti) between February and June 2006, among more than 7,000 respondents. The prevalence rate in the city was 18.6 per cent as opposed to 13.9 per cent recorded in 2000. In the rural area, it increased from 6.4 per cent in 2003 to 9.2 per cent . The town segment showed a prevalence of 16.4 per cent.

The study was to find out whether the prevalence differed significantly between the town and the city, and whether the rate had increased since the last surveys in urban and rural areas, the authors have said.

“The figures are much higher than the prevalence rates last recorded. What is clear is that the epidemic is moving over to the rural populations which are undergoing economic development, and probably seeing the impact of increasing urbanisation,” said A. Ramachandran of A. Ramachandran’s Diabetes Hospital and co-author of the study. Even a 2004 study by V. Mohan et al had put the prevalence at 14.6 per cent. The other key factors , including obesity, overweight, hypertension and cholesterol, had also gone up among the target populations both in rural and urban areas, and more steeply among the urban population, Dr. Ramachandran said. Obesity, for instance, had gone up from 29.8 per cent in 2000 to 40.8 per cent in 2006 in Chennai. In rural areas, the rise was not so dramatic, but it was present. There, obesity had moved from 17.1 per cent in 2003 to 19.5 per cent in 2006.

The percentage of young diabetics had also increased in both areas.

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