Chennai: A study was conducted by Neuberg Diagnostics on the prevalence of prediabetes in five cities- Chennai, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Kochi and Hyderabad.
The study assessed 453,854 fasting blood sugar test samples across age groups collected between October 2018 and October 2020. The results indicated that across age groups, 24 per cent of the people had borderline levels of blood sugar i.e., were prediabetic.
The highest prevalence was observed among those over 50 years age at 68 per cent; followed by 36 to 50 years of age group at 24%. The prevalence among those less than 35 years of age group was 8%.
Dr Sandip Shah, executive director, Neuberg Diagnostics said, “Every person today is at risk of having or developing diabetes, but the only way to know this is through regular monitoring of blood sugar levels. Lately, we have seen that people consider body mass index (BMI) as the ultimate benchmark for their health status but even people with balanced BMI can have diabetes. We have seen a healthy looking individual with borderline diabetes. So clearly, healthy lifestyle is not an indicator of absence of diabetes.”