India faces second highest economic burden due to diabetes: Study

India faces the second highest economic burden due to diabetes of $ 11.4 trillion -- the United States bears the highest costs at $ 16.5 trillion, and China the third at $ 11 trillion, a new study has estimated.

Researchers, including those from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis and the Vienna University of Economics and Business in Austria, calculated the economic impact of diabetes across 204 countries from 2020 to 2050.

Global costs amount to around $ 10 trillion, excluding informal care provided by family members -- about 0.2 per cent of the world's annual gross domestic product (GDP), findings published in the journal Nature Medicine show.

 

Factoring in informal care amounts to up to $ 152 trillion, or 1.7 per cent of the world's yearly GDP, the study estimates.

"Caregivers often drop out of the labour market, at least partially, which creates additional economic costs," author Klaus Prettner, professor of macroeconomics and digitalisation at the Vienna University of Economics and Business, said.

The high share of informal caregiving, making up almost 90 per cent of the total economic burden, is explained by the fact that prevalence exceeds mortality by a factor of 30-50, the researchers said.

"The United States faces the largest economic burden of diabetes mellitus at INT$ 2.5 trillion, followed by India at INT$ 1.6 trillion and China at INT$ 1.0 trillion. When considering informal care loss, the largest economic burdens are INT$ 16.5 trillion in the United States, INT$ 11.4 trillion in India and INT$ 11.0 trillion in China," the authors wrote.

An international dollar (INT$) is a hypothetical, statistical unit used to compare economic metrics across countries. It has the same purchasing power as a United States dollar (USD).

For India and China, the high economic costs of diabetes were mainly attributed to a large affected population, while those in the US were primarily due to high treatment costs and physical capital diversion, the researchers said.

They added that a prime distinction between high- and low-income countries is the distribution of the burden across the treatment cost and lost labour channels -- the former makes up 41 per cent of the economic burden for high-income countries as opposed to 14 per cent for low-income countries.

"This is a stark illustration of how medical treatment regimes for chronic diseases such as diabetes are accessible to high income countries only," co-author Michael Kuhn, acting economic frontiers research group leader at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, said.

The economic impact of diabetes is enormous, compared to that due to Alzheimer's disease or cancer, the researchers said.

Promoting healthier lifestyles -- regular physical activity and a balanced diet -- is the most effective way to prevent diabetes and reduce its economic impact, they said.

Early detection through comprehensive diabetes screening programs for the entire population, along with rapid diagnosis and timely treatment, are essential steps toward mitigating both health and economic consequences, the team said.

Over a quarter of the world's diabetics are estimated to be living in India, according to a study published in The Lancet journal in November 2024.