Study warns of surging metabolic diseases in Asia-Pacific region

Key facts

• A study published in the journal Metabolism, based on Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2023 data, warns of rapidly rising metabolic diseases across the Asia-Pacific.
• High blood pressure is the largest disease burden in the region, responsible for over 6.2 million deaths and 138 million years of healthy life lost in 2023.
• Approximately 310 million people in the Asia-Pacific live with type-2 diabetes, resulting in more than 1.1 million deaths last year.
• In India, type-2 diabetes accounted for over 21 million disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) and nearly 5.8 lakh deaths in 2023.
• Obesity was linked to around 55 million DALYs and approximately 1.3 million deaths across the region in 2023.
• India, China, and Indonesia carry the largest shares of the metabolic disease burden in the region.
• The burden of metabolic conditions has grown between 1.7 and nearly four times across different diseases since 1990.
• Most metabolic risks are projected to continue rising across the Asia-Pacific region until at least 2030.