New Delhi: Daulat Ram, a 76-year-old pensioner, has been living with diabetes for the past ten years. “My monthly expenditure to keep diabetes under control is killing me. I spend more than ₹10,000 every month,” he says. “Because of this disease, it takes away a large chunk of my family’s expenses.”
Ram acknowledges that his pension has helped him survive the financial strain of long-term treatment. However, for many others in his age group who lack a steady source of income or financial support, coping with the “silent killer” has become an everyday struggle—where managing the illness is as daunting as affording it.
Today, diabetes is more than a medical diagnosis; it is a slow, relentless financial drain. Beyond claiming lives, the disease is emptying household savings, forcing millions to spend a growing share of their income just to stay alive and keep complications at bay.
From daily medicines and insulin to regular tests and hospital visits, the cost of controlling diabetes has become a lifelong economic burden, pushing many families to the brink even as they fight to manage the illness.
Daulat Ram’s story reflects a much larger and alarming reality. Diabetes is fast turning into an economic time bomb. A study published in the leading medical journal Nature Medicine warns that if the disease is not brought under control, the world could suffer a financial loss of more than ₹710 lakh crore by 2050.
The estimate is based on scientific modelling of disease prevalence, healthcare costs, and productivity losses across countries.
The worst impact will be felt by India, China, and the United States. The study highlights that nearly 45 per cent of people with diabetes do not even know they are suffering from it, and about 90 per cent of this undiagnosed population lives in these three countries.
India is already staring at the consequences. According to the ICMR–Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology studies, Delhi alone has around 42 lakh people living with diabetes, pointing to the massive health and financial burden being carried by a single city. On average, a diabetes patient in India spends between ₹15,000 and ₹20,000 every month to keep the disease under control.
With public healthcare stretched thin, nearly 90 per cent of patients are forced to pay out of their own pockets. In many families, 10 to 20 per cent of annual income is spent on managing diabetes, pushing middle- and lower-income households deeper into financial insecurity.
“Diabetes shortens life expectancy and damages vital organs. It directly affects the heart, eyes, lungs, skin, and nerves,” said Delhi Medical Association President Dr Girish Tyagi, warning that the disease is as deadly as it is disabling.
Globally, Nature Medicine estimates that in 2021, about 53.7 crore people were living with diabetes, with more than three-fourths belonging to low- and middle-income countries. Data from over 150 countries were analysed. The projections are grim: by 2050, India alone could face a financial burden of nearly ₹1.32 lakh billion due to diabetes, raising serious concerns that the disease could cripple both public health and the economy if urgent action is not taken.
Evidence from the BMJ Open Diabetes Research & Care journal shows that air pollution is linked to a higher risk of type-2 diabetes. A large Indian cohort study published in this peer-reviewed medical journal found that long-term exposure to fine particulate matter (PM₂.₅) was associated with higher blood sugar levels and an increased risk of developing type-2 diabetes.
Researchers followed more than 12,000 adults in Delhi and Chennai over several years, measuring their exposure to PM₂.₅ and tracking blood sugar markers such as fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and HbA1c.
They observed that higher short- to long-term exposure to ambient PM₂.₅ was associated with increases in these glycaemic markers and a higher risk of developing type-2 diabetes.
The study found that for every 10 µg/m³ increase in long-term PM₂.₅ exposure, there was about a 23 per cent increase in the risk of type-2 diabetes—a stronger association than seen in many studies from lower-pollution settings.
While air pollution does not cause diabetes on its own in the way that diet or obesity does, the evidence indicates that living in areas with high levels of fine particulate pollution (PM₂.₅) can significantly raise the risk of developing type-2 diabetes, likely through mechanisms such as chronic inflammation and worsening insulin resistance.
This study adds to a growing body of global research linking air pollution with metabolic disease and highlights why improving air quality may also help reduce the growing burden of diabetes—especially in heavily polluted urban regions like parts of India.
(Cover Image Credit: CANVA)
