Huge increase in diabetes rates in rural Tamil Nadu within 15 years as per MDRF TREND Project Report
- New findings from the Madras Diabetes Research Foundation/ University of Dundee ‘TREND’ rural diabetes project
Chennai | February 25th,
2020: In order to study the
current status of diabetes in rural Tamil Nadu, the Madras Diabetes Research
Foundation (MDRF) and the University of Dundee have taken up a joint
research collaboration to screen 15,000 people in 25 selected villages in Kancheepuram district
of Tamil Nadu. The program called as the TREND
(Telemedicine pRoject for screENing Diabetes and its complications in rural Tamil Nadu) project has already screened over 8000 people till date. Headed
by Professor Colin NA Palmer, Associate Dean for Research and
Chair of Pharmacogenomics, School of Medicine, University of Dundee, Ninewells
Hospital and Medical School Dundee and Dr.V.Mohan, Chairman and Chief
Diabetologist – Dr. Mohan’s Diabetes Specialities Centre and Director MDRF, the TREND project focuses on finding the burden due to
diabetes and its complications in rural Tamil Nadu and providing novel
solutions for its management.
In 2017, the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) of
the Department of Health, UK funded the Madras Diabetes Research Foundation
(MDRF) and the University of Dundee, Scotland to take up the INdia-Scotland PartnershIp for pRecision mEdicine
in Diabetes (INSPIRED) project.
This project aims to develop a strategic plan of research and collaboration on diabetes.
The resultant breakthroughs aim to achieve multiple goals namely, develop a
large-scale Scotland clinical partnership to combat diabetes in India, work on
understanding the heterogeneity of diabetes in India, develop innovative new
tools and big data science to facilitate low cost diabetes screening in India
and implement next generation precision telemedicine in India. Twelve Ph.D
students have been registered so far under this programme with 9 students from
the University of Dundee and 3 students from University of Madras. The TREND
project is part of the overall INSPIRED program.
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(L to R) Dr.V.Mohan, Chairman and Chief Diabetologist – Dr. Mohan’s
Diabetes Specialities Centre and Director MDRF; Professor Colin NA Palmer, Associate Dean for Research and
Chair of Pharmacogenomics, School of Medicine, University of Dundee, Ninewells
Hospital and Medical School Dundee
Elaborating his
experience in the project, Professor Colin Palmer, Associate Dean for
Research and Chair of Pharmacogenomics, School of Medicine, University of
Dundee, Ninewells Hospital and Medical School Dundee said “On behalf of
the University of Dundee, we are extremely glad to be associated with Madras
Diabetes Research Foundation with Dr.V.Mohan and his team to have worked on
this breakthrough project emphasizing the need to have Telemedicine as the most
desirable solution for screening and treating rural population in India. The
aim of this research is to improve the health of patients and public in low and
middle-income countries like India. This four-year Indo-UK collaborative
project has me, Prof. Colin Palmer from University of Dundee as the lead
from UK and Dr.V.Mohan and colleagues from MDRF as the lead from India.
We have found that risk factors that drive early onset diabetes in South Asian
and white Europeans differ markedly, suggesting that the etiology of type 2
diabetes differs markedly across these two ethnicities.
Leading the Indian
team of researchers from MDRF, Dr.V.Mohan, Chairman and Chief Diabetologist
– Dr. Mohan’s Diabetes Specialities Centre, Director and Chief – MDRF
commented “In the TREND study we observed that the prevalence of diabetes in
rural Tamil Nadu has increased from 4.9% in 2006 in the Chunampet Rural
Diabetes Prevention Project (CRDPP) to 8% in 2011 in the ICMR- India Diabetes
(ICMR-INDIAB ) study in Tamil Nadu to 13.5% now in the TREND project
representing a nearly threefold (300%) increase in diabetes prevalence in rural
Tamil Nadu within 15 years. During the same period obesity rates also increased
markedly. The mean body mass index (BMI) was 21.0 kg/m2 in 2006 which increased to 22.0 kg/m2 in 2011 in
the ICMR-INDIAB study and to 25.0 kg/m2 now in the TREND study. We utilized telemedicine
technology in the 25 villages that were selected from Cheyyur taluk,
Kancheepuram district of Tamil Nadu state. So overall early and timely
screening for diabetes and pre-diabetes, prevalence of hypertension and
obesity, screening diabetic complications in eye using retinal images, foot and
kidney as well as assessing diabetes control among individuals etc. were
carried out through this project.“
Awareness, diagnosis,
regular checkups and other ways of preventing as well as treating NCDs especially
Diabetes, are very low among the rural sector. Through the TREND project, the Madras
Diabetes Research Foundation (MDRF) and the University of Dundee aims
to address these challenges with innovative use of technology that will enable even
remote areas gain access to quality medical diagnosis and care.
Another novelty of
the INSPIRED project is the use of retinal images to predict future risk of not
only diabetic complications, but also other diseases like future heart disease,
stroke and even dementia. This is one of the first such projects to be carried
out in India and was possible due to use of novel software called VAMPIRE (Vascular Assessment
and Measurement Platform for Images of the REtina) led by the Universities
of Dundee (Prof E Trucco) and Edinburgh (Dr T MacGillivray).
About Dr. Mohan’s Diabetes specialties Centre: Dr. Mohan’s Diabetes Specialties Centre is a
diabetes specialty chain founded in the year 1991 headquartered in Chennai,
Tamil Nadu. It is India’s diabetes care provider offering comprehensive services
for diabetes patients. Dr. Mohan’s Diabetes Specialties Centre now has 53
Diabetes centres and clinics in India and over 4.5 lakh diabetic patients have
been registered at these centres. The Specializes in Total Diabetes care,
Diabetes Eye Care, Diabetes Foot Care services, Diabetes Cardiac Care,
Preventive Care, Diet counseling and an advanced Laboratory.
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