Slug: World Diabetes DayAhmedabad: The urban-rural gap in diabetes risk is narrowing in Gujarat, with the latest National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-6 district data pointing to a sharp rise in high or very high blood sugar levels in non-urban areas over the last four years.NFHS-6, conducted in 2023-24, shows 18.6% of surveyed men and 16.4% of surveyed women in Gujarat had “blood sugar level – high or very high (>140 mg/dl) or taking medicine to control blood sugar level”. This is higher than NFHS-5 (2019-21) by 1.7 percentage points among men and 0.6 percentage points among women.While urban prevalence remains higher overall—20.2% in urban versus 17.6% in rural for men, and 18.2% in urban versus 15.2% in rural for women—the district-level comparison between NFHS-6 and NFHS-5 highlights that the steepest jumps are being recorded outside the cities.Among men, Navsari recorded a 9.2 percentage-point rise in blood sugar, up from 16.1% in NFHS-5 to 25.3% in NFHS-6. It was followed by Anand (up 8.9 percentage points) and Gir Somnath (up 7.6 percentage points). Among women, the top increases were concentrated in South Gujarat: Dang saw a 6.5 percentage-point rise (from 6.7% to 13.2%), while Valsad and Navsari rose by 5.6 and 4.8 percentage points, respectively.As World Diabetes Day is observed on Nov 14 with the theme ‘Early Action on Diabetes’, clinicians in the state say the survey reflects what they are witnessing in practice, especially in parts of South Gujarat.Dr Sandip Desai, a Valsad-based diabetologist and former secretary of the Gujarat chapter of Research Society for the Study of Diabetes in India (RSSDI), said lifestyle patterns that once offered some protection in smaller towns and rural belts have changed. “Earlier factors such as relatively higher share of manual labour, walking to work or for domestic chores, preference for home-cooked meals, and relatively better sleep quality were saving a large section from lifestyle-related diseases. But today there is not much difference between BMI (body mass index) of a person from Surat, Valsad or Navsari. Even those from Dang and Tapi are also hooked to mobile phones and are not engaged in labour activities that they used to do about two decades ago,” said Dr Desai. “I believe awareness is also playing a part with more people with diabetes coming to medical settings.”Diabetologists also point to the wider health burden associated with rising blood sugar levels and warn that the distinction between “urban” and “rural” risk is fading. “The data should be seen as a warning sign that now there is not much urban-rural divide in the context of what we eat, how we live, or what we aspire to be. According to data, one in every five urban men has elevated blood sugar. The take-home message from the data is: intervention must start as early as possible especially when children, teens and young adults are hooked to delivery apps and love to eat out without corresponding time spent for physical exercise or sports,” said Dr Sanjeev Phatak, an Ahmedabad-based senior diabetologist.
