Apollo has released its annual Health of the Nation report that deep dives into the prevalence and growth of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and highlights the importance of the right preventive healthcare measures to ensure India stays healthy.

The rise in preventive screenings has also led to an increase in the diagnosis of early risk factors like Obesity and Dyslipidemia (cholesterol irregularities) among Indians across age groups. There is a 50% increase in the prevalence of Obesity among Indians between 2019 and 2022.

Obesity has seen an uptick in diagnosis in those less than 45 years of age by 43% and by 60% in people over the age of 45.

Dyslipidemia or Cholesterol irregularities has seen an 18% increase in prevalence among Indians between 2019 and 2022. This is also fueled by a significant increase in its prevalence among those over 45 years of age by more than 35%

Diabetes and Hypertension diagnosis have seen an 8% and 11% increase respectively between 2019-22.

While liver diseases saw maximum prevalence in East (at 50%), its lowest impact relatively is in the South (28%). West has seen the least relatively the lowest prevalence of diabetes (15%) while South has the highest (27%). Obesity trends have been similar across regions, ranging between 22-24%. Dyslipidemia (cholesterol) has the highest prevalence across all regions, with North seeing the most (48%), followed by West (41%), East (39%) and then South (37%).

There is a need to reimagine preventive health assessments and design them to be more suitable to the Indian population.