Health risks emerging earlier, stay hidden for long: Apollo report

India’s health landscape is rapidly and silently shifting, with the most common health risks emerging earlier and often remaining undetected. Findings from the ‘Health of the Nation 2026’ (HoN 2026) report by Apollo Hospitals, which is based on over three million preventive health assessments conducted across its ecosystem in 2025, indicate that risk factors for conditions such as diabetes and obesity were already present across younger and working populations, often before they were clinically recognised.

The sixth edition of HoN, which was released on World Health Day on Tuesday, said one in five persons under 30 were prediabetic. It is still reversible at this stage. Among those who intervened, 28% reversed to normal. Among those over 50, only 7 % did. It found that more than half were obese, and more than half had abnormal cholesterol.