Almost one-fifth of the world’s people with diabetes live in South-East Asia Region, DASL said.

According to the association, more and more young persons were being afflicted by the disease and though the number of people affected by diabetics was ever-increasing, the country had not yet taken serious steps to reduce the risk of diabetes.

The prevalence of diabetes in the country had dramatically increased from around 16 per cent in 2009 to 20 per cent in 2014.

The diabetes prevalence among the people over 20 years in the urban population was 16 per cent and among the rural population it was eight per cent. Under the age of 20 years it was 8.2 per cent,.

According to DASL, the prevalence of diabetes among urban population had increased from 12.1 per cent in 1996 to 16.4 per cent in 2008. Overall prevalence of some form of dysglycaemia had increased from 6.87 per cent in 1987 to 30 per cent in 2006.

In 2011, 71.4 million people (8.3%) in South East Asia were affected by diabetes and 23.8 million people (2.8%) were affected by Impaired Glucose Tolerance (IGT). Numbers are expected to rise to 120.9 million (10.2%) for diabetes and 38.6 million (3.2%) for IGT by 2030, according to the DASL.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) about 347 million people worldwide had diabetes and it was predicted to become the 7th leading cause of death in the world by the year 2030. In 2012 diabetes was the direct cause of 1.5 million deaths.

Overweight and lack of exercise were the main causes of diabetes among children, while family history, food habits and obesity were the main causes among adults.

Adopting a healthy diet and increasing physical activity can prevent the development of Type 2 Diabetes up to 80 per cent.