Trends in the diabetes incidence and mortality in India from 1990 to 2019: a joinpoint and age-period-cohort analysis

Globally, a metabolic disorder like Diabetes is considered as one of the largest global health issues, as it accounts for the majority of the disease burden and happens to be one of the leading causes of mortality as well as reduced life expectancy across the world. As in 2019, India is home to the second-largest number (77 million) of Diabetic adults and the number of people affected has been increasing rapidly over the years. Termed as “the diabetes capital of the world,” with every fifth diabetic in the world being an Indian, there is an urgent need to address many critically significant challenges posed by Diabetes in India, like, increasing prevalence among young people in urban areas, less awareness among people, high cost of disease management, limited healthcare facilities, suboptimal diabetes control etc. In Indian context, not enough attempts have been made to observe and understand the long-term pattern of diabetes incidence and mortality. This study aims to provide deep insights into the recent trends of diabetes incidence and mortality in India from 1990 to 2019. This is an observational study based on the most recent data from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study 2019. We extracted numbers, age-specific and age-standardized incidence and mortality rates of diabetes (from 1990 to 2019) from the Global Health Data Exchange. The average annual percentage changes in incidence and mortality were analysed by joinpoint regression analysis; the net age, period, and cohort effects on the incidence and mortality were estimated by age-period-cohort analysis. During the study period, age-standardized incidence and mortality rates of diabetes in India experienced an upsurge in numbers, the incidence rate increased from 199.14 to 317.02, and consequently, mortality increased from 22.30 to 27.35 per 100,000 population. The joinpoint regression analysis showed that the age-standardized incidence significantly rose by 1.63 % (95 % CI: 1.57 %, 1.69 %) in Indian males and 1.56 % in Indian females (95 % CI: 1.49 %, 1.63 %) from 1990 to 2019. On the other hand, the age-standardized mortality rates rose by 0.77 % (95 % CI: 0.24 %, 1.31 %) in Indian males and 0.57 % (95 % CI: -0.54 %, 1.70 %) in Indian females. For age-specific rates, incidence increased in most age groups, with exception of age groups 5–9, 70–74, 75–79 and 80–84 in male, and age groups 5–9, 75–79 and 80–84 in female. Mortality in male saw a decreasing trend till age group 20–24, whereas in female, the rate decreased till age group 35–39. The age effect on incidence showed no obvious changes with advancing age, but the mortality significantly increased with advancing age; period effect showed that both incidence and mortality increased with advancing time period; cohort effect on diabetes incidence and mortality decreased from earlier birth cohorts to more recent birth cohorts, while incidence showed no material changes from 1975 to 1979 to 2000–2004 birth cohort. Mortality of diabetes decreased in younger age groups but increased in older age groups; however, Incidence increased in most age groups for both male and female. The net age or period effect showed an unfavourable trend while the net cohort effect presented a favourable trend. Aging was likely to drive a continued increase in the mortality of diabetes. Timely population-level interventions aiming for health education, lifestyle modification with special emphasis on the promotion of physical activity and healthy diet should be conducted, especially for male and earlier birth cohorts at high risk of diabetes.