Ahmedabad: For years, Gujarat’s sweet tooth was considered to have no match in the country. But it does not seem to be the case now. In fact, the latest Lancet study, “The Increasing Burden Of Diabetes And Variations Among The States Of India: the Global Burden of Disease Study 1990–2016” puts Gujarat at the 15th position when it comes to prevalence of diabetes among a population of 1 lakh. The study claims that between 1990 and 2016 there has been an increase of 88.5% in the prevalence of diabetes in Gujarat. In 2016 the state saw the prevalence of 729 diabetic individuals among a lakh population.Worse than Gujarat are the situation in states like Tamil Nadu and Punjab where the prevalence in absolute numbers seems to be 1,628 diabetic and 1,314 diabetic individuals respectively among a population of one lakh. Goa on the other has seen the highest increase in diabetes prevalence, 129% , between 1990 and 2016 among Indian states and Union territories, followed by Tamil Nadu which has seen a 109% rise in diabetic cases in a population of one lakh.In 2015, the National Health Profile by the Central Bureau of Health Intelligence had pitched Gujarat to have the highest number of diabetics in the country. The number of diabetic persons in Gujarat according to the study stood at 1.61 lakh which was 20.5% of the total 7.87 lakh population screened. Along with diabetes, the study had claimed that hypertension, too, has the highest number of cases reported from Gujarat. With 1.59 lakh cases of hypertension Gujarat had also recorded an equal percentage of 20.2% cases.“A prolonged festival season that stretches from Dussehra, Diwali and till Uttarayan will see a number of new diabetic individuals at our urban health centres,” said a senior health official in the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC).The state government in 2015 had launched a lifestyle disease screening programme of 2 crore people living within urban areas of the state. The target age group ranged between 30 to 35 years. More than 300 community health centres (CHC) and 350 urban health centres (UHC) were roped in for the programme.

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