BeatO witnesses exponential YoY user base growth from tier 4 cities, Health News, ET HealthWorld

New Delhi: BeatO, a digital care platform for controlling and reversing diabetes, has announced that they have more than two million people with diabetes on their platform. The platform has seen its user base grow by 17x in the past five years.

According to a recent Lancet report, India is home to approximately 77 million people with diabetes, and these numbers are predicted to increase to 125 million by 2045. The report also concludes that approximately one in five adults is now estimated to have diabetes in India.

Traditionally, Indians have lacked awareness around subjects like diabetes, which has obstructed people from getting a proper diagnosis and care, well in time. With only five per cent of specialist doctors for people with diabetes residing in tier two cities and beyond, the population there is underserved and access to good quality healthcare is severely limited.

However, post-pandemic, BeatO has witnessed an upsurge of 5x new user registration from tier four and beyond, with 38 per cent of their users currently belonging to tier four cities. Most new user registrations from tier-four towns were from Ernakulam (8x), followed by Allapuzha (7x), Thanjavur (6x) and Pathanamthitta (6x).

Gautam Chopra, Co-Founder & CEO, BeatO commented, “Lack of medical infrastructure and access to quality healthcare has always been a concern in India, especially in tier three and four cities. The pandemic only exposed the prevailing issues and made us all realise the importance of digital infrastructure and its role in creating a bridge to control the impact of chronic diseases like diabetes.”

BeatO recently published the findings with the International Diabetes Federation, wherein the company extracted the sociodemographic details of more than a million users with diabetes on its smartphone-connected care ecosystem between October 2015 to April 2022, revealing that the majority of male users belonged to tier four (39 per cent), followed by metro (33 per cent), tier two (21 per cent), and tier one/tier three (seven per cent). The majority of females belong to the metro (40 per cent), followed by tier four (32 per cent), tier two (21 per cent), and tier one/tier three (seven per cent) respectively.

“People are now more mindful of the various risk factors associated with diabetes, are able to recognize the typical early symptoms of diabetes and are seeking help to manage the condition with the right medication and care,” concluded Chopra.