$2.6 trillion productivity decline due to diabetes in India: Experts

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New Delhi: New research has estimated the diabetes induced productivity losses in India to the tune of USD 2.6 trillion underlining the urgent need for health strategies to tackle the epidemic.

Published in the latest edition of PubMed, the free full-text archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature at the US National Institutes of Health’s National Centre for Biotechnology Information, a fresh analysis reveals estimated productivity losses of Indian Rupees 176.6 trillion in lost gross domestic product due to diabetes.

India second to China

  • 80 million diabetics in India, second to China in world
  • 134 mn number of diabetics likely to rise in India by 2045
  • Study suggests urgent need for strategy to tackle epidemic

Led by researcher Khyati Banker, the study “The Impact of Diabetes on Productivity in India” constructed a life table model to examine the productivity of the Indian working-age population currently aged 20-59 years with diabetes, followed until death or retirement age (60 years). The same cohort was re-simulated, hypothetically assuming that they did not have diabetes.

The total difference between the two cohorts, in terms of excess deaths, years of life lost (YLL), productivity-adjusted life years (PALYs) lost reflected the impact of diabetes. Data regarding the prevalence of diabetes, mortality, labour force dropouts and productivity loss attributable to diabetes were derived from published sources.

The results state that in 2017, an estimated 54.4 million (7.6 per cent) people of working-age in India had diabetes. India is currently home to around 80 million diabetics, second only to China.