Islamabad: Every second adult in rural Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is now living with diabetes, highlighting the alarming scale at which type 2 diabetes and other lifestyle diseases have silently spread across Pakistan, former special assistant to the prime minister on health Dr Zafar Mirza disclosed on Monday.
Speaking at an awareness session on diabetes and obesity care at the Pakistan Institute of Parliamentary Affairs (PIPS), Dr Mirza said a recent population based survey conducted on a large sample of around 12,000 people in rural areas of KP found that nearly 50 percent of adults were diabetic.
He described the findings as “a huge revelation” and said the data reflected the gravity of lifestyle diseases in the country.
Dr Mirza warned that Pakistan was facing a growing burden of non communicable diseases, including diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and hypertension, adding that these conditions now accounted for a major share of preventable illness and deaths.
He said all major NCDs shared common risk factors such as unhealthy diets, physical inactivity, obesity, stress and disturbed sleep patterns, and called for an urgent shift from treatment focused care to prevention led policies.
Calling for the adoption of lifestyle medicine in Pakistan, Dr Mirza said the approach was based on seven core pillars: healthy nutrition, regular physical activity, adequate sleep, stress management, avoidance of harmful substances, strong social connections and preventive health care.
He said sustained lifestyle changes could significantly delay the onset of diabetes, reduce complications and, in some cases, help achieve remission of type 2 diabetes.
Renowned journalist and anchorperson Hamid Mir urged policymakers to prioritise prevention, saying Pakistan’s urban environment and food culture were increasingly hostile to healthy living.
He said the state needed to provide a conducive environment for people to adopt healthier lifestyles, including safer public spaces for walking, regulation of junk food marketing and public awareness campaigns on diabetes and obesity.
Former general manager of Novo Nordisk Rashed Rafique Butt said Pakistan was paying the price for disorganised lifestyles, with people eating more and moving less.
He said multinational pharmaceutical companies were bringing well researched medicines with proven safety profiles to Pakistan and claimed that insulin and other diabetes medicines were being provided at comparatively affordable rates in the country.
Rashed Butt maintained that access to quality treatment remained critical as the burden of diabetes continued to rise.
WHO National Professional Officer Dr Shahzad Alam Khan called for strict regulation of junk food marketing and late night food delivery campaigns, warning that aggressive promotions were encouraging unhealthy eating habits, especially among children and young people.
He said such practices were contributing to obesity and diabetes while also disrupting sleep patterns, further increasing health risks. He added that around 53 percent of deaths in Pakistan were now linked to non communicable diseases, including complications of diabetes, and stressed the need for legislative action to curb the spread of lifestyle related illnesses.
Former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf said diabetes prevention required sustained awareness and behavioural change, noting that dietary habits in the country had long been unhealthy and needed to be addressed through education and community engagement.
He lauded the Umer Diabetes Foundation for its work in diabetes prevention and community outreach.
Executive Director of the Umer Diabetes Foundation Dr Umer Wahab said Pakistan was facing a rapid rise in diabetes, much of it undiagnosed, particularly in rural and low income communities.
He stressed the importance of early screening, timely diagnosis and sustained follow up care, warning that delayed detection was leading to avoidable complications, including heart disease, kidney failure and vision loss.
Denmark’s ambassador to Pakistan Maja Mortensen said non communicable diseases had emerged as one of the most significant global public health challenges and could only be tackled through strong partnerships between governments, the private sector and civil society.
She said responsible public private collaboration aligned with national health priorities could help improve access to screening and care for chronic diseases such as diabetes.
On the occasion, Novo Nordisk formally handed over a mobile health unit to the Umer Diabetes Foundation to support diabetes and obesity screening and outreach services in underserved communities.
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