A new study published in the international journal The Lancet reports that diabetes prevalence in adults has doubled globally, rising from 7% in 1990 to 14% in 2022. Conducted by the NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC) led by Imperial College London, the study included contributions from the Sri Lanka Health and Ageing Study (SLHAS), run by the Institute for Health Policy (IHP) and the universities of Colombo, Peradeniya, Ruhuna, and Rajarata with support from the Ministry of Health.

The NCD-RisC study, which pooled data from over 140 million participants across 1,100 population-representative surveys, is one of the most comprehensive global estimates of diabetes prevalence. Its findings show that Sri Lanka had one of the highest diabetes prevalence rates in South Asia, with 23% of adults affected by 2019. The SLHAS contributed data from its 2018/2019 survey, collected using gold-standard methods, including the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), which sets it apart from most other surveys in the international study.

Sri Lanka was notable in the NCD-RisC study for its comparatively high treatment coverage, with 41% of adults aged 30 and above receiving treatment for diabetes—the highest rate in South Asia. However, challenges remain, with SLHAS findings indicating that 4.2–8.7% of Sri Lankans with diabetes are undiagnosed.

 “This study demonstrates the critical importance of high-quality local data in better understanding our own health challenges, and the benefits of sharing data to strengthen links between Sri Lanka and the global research community,” said Dr. Ravi Rannan-Eliya, Director of IHP and co-author of the study. “The NCD-RisC findings confirm our previously published research that Sri Lanka has exceptionally high levels of diabetes, but that we also have high levels of diagnosis and treatment. At the same time, it indicates the big challenge we face in better understanding why so many Sri Lankans have diabetes and working out what we need to do to change this and to improve outcomes for people with diabetes.”

The study, conducted by NCD-RisC in collaboration with global partners including the World Health Organization, underscores the value of collaborative efforts in understanding and addressing the diabetes epidemic. The SLHAS remains committed to contributing data to future studies and supporting public health research in Sri Lanka.

References for published papers

Rannan- Eliya RP, Wijemunige N, Perera P, et al. Prevalence of diabetes and pre- diabetes in Sri Lanka: a new global hotspot estimates from the Sri Lanka Health and Ageing Survey 2018/2019. BMJ Open Diabetes Research & Care 2023;11:e003160 https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjdrc-2022-003160

Zhou, Bin et al. Worldwide trends in diabetes prevalence and treatment from 1990 to 2022: a pooled analysis of 1108 population-representative studies with 141 million participants. The Lancet;404(10467), 2077 - 2093. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(24)02317-1