title: Prevalence of diagnosed diabetes in an urban area of Puducherry, India: Time for preventive action.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Epidemiological studies in India have shown that the prevalence of diabetes in the population is at least twice the number of persons diagnosed with diabetes residing in the given area. Similarly, community-based prevalence figures are unavailable in Puducherry,.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study was to estimate the number of persons diagnosed with diabetes mellitus in Puducherry.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study was conducted in the service area of the Urban Health Centre (UHC), Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), Puducherry with retrospective data from family records.
  
  
  METHODS
  The diagnosis of diabetes was retrospectively documented by reviewing all family folders of 2667 families (Population 11,835) for the period of 1/1/2003 to 31/12/2006. The data was verified by home visits from January until March, 2007. The case definition used, was a resident diagnosed with diabetes by a medical doctor and who was on antidiabetes treatment for at least the past six months.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We found 643 individuals who had been diagnosed with diabetes. The prevalence of known diabetes was estimated to be 5.6% (5.31% in males and 6.1% in females). The age-sex specific prevalence was estimated using the 2001 Census data. There are about 48,876 known diabetics living in Puducherry.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  (1) Community-based health surveillance data comprise a useful tool to measure the prevalence of diagnosed cases of diabetes mellitus within the Indian context; 2) Diabetes mellitus is an important public health priority requiring urgent preventive action as there are about 97,752 persons in Puducherry who have either been diagnosed with diabetes or remain undiagnosed for the disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Medicine, Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences (A Unit of Madras Medical Mission), Kalapet, Pondicherry-605 014, India.
authors.forename: Anil J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Purty
authors.forename: D R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Vedapriya
authors.forename: Joy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bazroy
authors.forename: Sanjay
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.forename: Johnson
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cherian
authors.forename: Mohan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vishwanathan