Niyantrita Madhumeha Bharata 2017, Methodology for a Nationwide Diabetes Prevalence Estimate: Part 1

Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) poses an ever-increasing threat to people's health worldwide. India has reported high rates of incidence of T2DM. The dangers make accurate assessment of its burden and intervention of lifestyle change, an urgent necessity.

The aim of the study was to estimate the nationwide prevalence of prediabetes and diabetes, followed by a translational lifestyle trial.

The Indian Yoga Association was commissioned in 2016-2017 by the Government of India to conduct this study which was undertaken in two phases: Phase 1 was to estimate the prevalence of prediabetes and diabetes across the country, and Phase 2 was to conduct a randomized controlled trial using a validated yoga lifestyle protocol. This paper highlights the unique methodology of Phase 1 of the study. The first stage was screening (February to April 2017) for adults (>20 years) with high risk for diabetes on Indian diabetes risk score (IDRS) on mobile app, using a random cluster sampling survey method. All households in the rural (4 villages with about 500 adult population/village) and urban (2 census enumeration blocks [CEBs] of about 1000 adult population/block) sectors of 65 districts (one per ten districts in the entire country) from 29 out of 35 states of India were approached. In the second stage, detailed assessments (sociodemographic, clinical details, A1c, lipid profile, body mass index, stress, and tobacco) were carried out on those with high risk on IDRS and on all self-reported diabetes individuals.

In the first stage of door-to-door visit, 240,968 adults in all households of the selected clusters of villages and CEBs were approached. Of these, 162,330 responded. The respondents in the second stage for detailed assessments in the selected cohort were 50,199 (48% rural and 52% urban) adults. Of these, 7472 were self-reported known diabetes adults and the remaining were 42,737. Prevalence estimates for the country will follow in the future publications.

This rapid survey completed within 3 months in the entire country using trained volunteers offers the methodology to obtain a quick estimate of diabetes and high-risk population to implement any lifestyle program.