Prevalence of diabetes and prediabetes among rural South Indian population

Abstract

Background: Objective of this study was to assess the prevalence of self-reported and undiagnosed diabetes and prediabetes cases in rural south Indian population.Methods: The study was carried as secondary analysis of the data collected in our Health management information system (HMIS) as a part of our health systems initiative in Alakkudi gram panchayat, Thanjavur district, Tamil Nadu, India. We analysed the fasting glucose and post prandial glucose values of 1307 individuals form our database to assess the prevalence of undiagnosed diabetes and prediabetes as per the cut off recommended by Indian Council of Medical Research 2018 diabetes diagnostic criteria. We also presented the descriptive analysis of demographic features, risk behaviour, anthropometric data along with personal and family history of all the individuals analysed in this study. The secondary data retrieved from the HMIS system was free of any personal identifiers.Results: The self-reported prevalence of diabetes among adults in the village was 6.88% (90 out of 1307). The prevalence of undiagnosed diabetes among adults of Alakkudi village was 12.85% (168 out of 1307) and the prevalence of undiagnosed prediabetes among adults of Alakkudi village was 8.03% (105 out of 1307). Proportion of undiagnosed cases of diabetes in the village was 53%.Conclusions: The proportion of undiagnosed cases of diabetes is quite high in rural India and the proportion of prediabetes is also higher. It is the need of the hour to create awareness regarding diabetes and prediabetes amongst the rural India population and increasing health systems efforts for regular community-based screening among the rural Indians.