Gurgaon, Apr 30 (IANS): People in Maharashtra are at the highest risk of developing diabetes, followed by those in Karnataka, New Delhi and West Bengal, says a study by seeDoc, a Haryana-based online medical consultation company.

People in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Madya Pradesh are the safest in terms of their risk of developing the debilitating disease, the study said.

These findings are based on 20,000 users' online diabetes assessment test over the past three months, an official statement said.

Users who have a high risk of developing Type-2 diabetes showed the following common characteristics -- high body mass index (BMI), low physical activity, working in high stress environment, family history of Type-2 diabetes and symptoms of heart diseases, the statement added.

seeDoc designed the digital ‘Diabetes Test’ to assesses a user's risk of developing diabetes in the next five years.

“The Diabetes Test has been researched and designed by top doctors with both international and Indian experience and functions in a simple manner by asking users certain basic information about their health and lifestyle, and mathematically provides a risk score which conveys the risk to the user as mild, moderate, high and very high risk,” the statement added.

"Once a healthy person develops diabetes, the task is an uphill battle for both patients and their doctors," said Anuj Agarwal, co-founder and chief medical officer at seeDoc.

"Early detection and then preventing patients from developing the disease is the key to tackling the diabetes epidemic in India," he added.