Hyderabad

Low HDL is the clearest lipid finding in Hyderabad's tested reports. HDL particles help return cholesterol to the liver, and a low HDL result can sit beside a reassuring total-cholesterol result. That is why the full lipid panel matters: the total alone does not describe the pattern (Expert Panel, JAMA, 2001).

About half of Hyderabad's tested panels fall below the single 40 mg/dL HDL cutoff. With the higher cutoff for women, roughly two thirds are flagged, leaving Hyderabad and Mumbai effectively level. The change in position comes from the rule used, not a change in anyone's blood result. These are reports from employees and covered family members in a pincode-based reporting area; they do not measure the city population. The separate survey later on this page is not linked to them person by person.

Hyderabad has the metros' highest low-HDL share — 50.6% of 389 lipid panels#

Of the 389 Hyderabad reports carrying a lipid panel, 197 returned an HDL cholesterol below 40 mg/dL. At 50.6% that is the highest share of the five WHI metros, ahead of Pune (47.8% of 2,539), Mumbai (46.3% of 944), Bengaluru (41.8% of 1,566) and Delhi NCR (39.1% of 691). It is also the smallest of those five samples.

HDL cholesterol is the amount of cholesterol carried in high-density lipoprotein particles. These particles help return cholesterol from tissues to the liver. The test measures their cholesterol content, not the number of particles or how well they work. 40 mg/dL is where the NCEP Adult Treatment Panel drew its "low" line — a boundary the panel deliberately raised from 35 mg/dL, and one it lists among the major risk factors that change a patient's LDL target (Expert Panel, JAMA, 2001). A reassuring total cholesterol can coexist with low HDL. In the ICMR-INDIAB lipid sample — 2,042 fasting venous panels drawn from four Indian regions — low HDL was the commonest abnormality at 72.3%, and in 44.9% of subjects it was present as an isolated abnormality, meaning without raised total cholesterol or triglycerides. That study used the sex-specific rule, men below 40 and women below 50, not the single 40 mg/dL line (Joshi and colleagues, PLoS ONE, 2014).

That lead does not survive a change of cutoff. The strict 40 mg/dL rule, applied to both sexes, puts Hyderabad first. The sex-specific rule — women below 50, men below 40 — puts Hyderabad at 65.6% and Mumbai at 65.7%, which is level. Nothing about the reports changed between those two numbers; only the criterion did. A single cutoff applied to a mixed-sex sample also carries no verdict on which sex is worse off here, because each city's lipid sample has its own sex mix. The Lipids page sets out both definitions in full.

Laboratory cities use report pincodes; survey cities use reported residence. Methodology.

Inside the city, the low-HDL share is not flat across ages. Among the three working-age bands shown below, the 30s has the highest share: 59.3% of 135, against 42.3% of 130 in the 20s. The 40s reads 45.8% on a smaller base of 59 reports. The omitted age groups each have 40 or fewer reports, so this is not an all-age ranking.

Low HDL is common in both parts of the covered population. Employees and covered family members are close on this measure: 51.0% of 251 employee reports and 50.0% of 138 covered-family reports came back below 40 mg/dL. This establishes a similar fixed-cutoff share in the two groups; it does not explain the result or adjust for their age and sex composition.

Two in five blood-sugar results are elevated in both editions#

167 of the 426 Hyderabad reports carrying an HbA1c came back at 5.7% or above: 39.2%. HbA1c reports average blood glucose over roughly the previous three months; below 5.7% is the normal range, 5.7–6.4% the pre-diabetic range and 6.5% or above the diabetic one, and in someone without symptoms, a result in either raised range needs confirmation before diagnosis (NIDDK). Among the five metros that 39.2% is third — Mumbai is 46.8% of 872 and Pune 43.2% of 2,562, while Delhi NCR (32.7% of 689) and Bengaluru (30.7% of 1,515) sit lower. 71 of the 426 reports, 16.7%, were at 6.5% or above.

WHI 2025 measured the same thresholds on a much smaller Hyderabad sample. The steadiness is the finding: about two in five tested HbA1c results were in the dysfunction band in both editions.

The editions use different city samples, so this is not a city health trend.

The gradient underneath is steep. In the 20s, 30 of 151 reports are in the dysfunction band; in the 30s, 53 of 147. That roughly doubles the share across a single decade, from 19.9% to 36.1%. The 40s share is 49.1% on 53 reports; its smaller base makes that estimate less precise. The 50s and 60s carry fewer than 50 reports each. The shape follows the national curve on the Blood Sugar page.

39.2% is a share of tested reports — of people who came to a panel through an employer benefit. A city prevalence is a different measurement, made on population samples by surveys built for the purpose (Anjana and colleagues, The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, 2023).

Across all ages, elevated glucose is similar in female and male reports: 38.9% of 198 and 39.5% of 228. This combined comparison can conceal age-specific differences.

More than four in five vitamin D results are below 30 ng/mL; Hyderabad has the lowest B12-below-300 share of five metros#

343 of 413 vitamin D results — 83.1% — were below 30 ng/mL. As with B12, 30 ng/mL is a band this report sets: clinical guidance on where vitamin D sufficiency begins differs between bodies. A result below this boundary does not by itself establish a clinical diagnosis (NIH ODS). The share is high, and it is not particular to Hyderabad: Bengaluru and Pune both read 83.9%, on much larger samples. See the Vitamin D page for the national picture.

B12 runs the other way. At 60.3% of 421 reports below 300 pg/mL, Hyderabad has the lowest share of the five metros on that measure, well under Bengaluru's 78.8% of 1,723 — and it is still three reports in five. That is a statement about one threshold, not a verdict on the city's B12 health overall. The Vitamin B12 page carries the band and its limits.

Female anemia is 42.0% of the 269 female haemoglobin results, second highest of the five behind Mumbai's 52.3% of 621 and well above Bengaluru's 23.2% of 1,131. Among male results it is 8.8% of 317. The two orderings are not identical: Delhi NCR sits above Hyderabad among men, at 11.9% of 497, and just below it among women, at 41.4% of 435, so those two cities swap places. Mumbai is highest, Pune fourth and Bengaluru lowest in both. Coverage is partial on this measure — the five metros hold 3,785 of the report's 4,375 female and 4,543 of its 5,210 male haemoglobin results.

Hyderabad's composite liver measure is 21.7% of 470 reports. Only Delhi NCR is higher, at 34.4%; Mumbai is close behind, at 20.2%.

WHI 2025 recorded Hyderabad at 25.8% of 89 reports using a different liver measure. The 21.7% figure is the 2026 reading.

Hyderabad has the lowest nicotine and caffeine use rates, and the most "None of these" care answers#

The survey received 936 Hyderabad responses about daily habits and care.

Three of the eight rows sit above the all-respondent figure, and none of them is a substance. The largest gap is on care: 44.8% of Hyderabad responses, 335 of 747, selected "None of these" when asked what they had done in the past year, ahead of Mumbai (42.1% of 976), Delhi NCR (40.5% of 975), Bengaluru (39.7% of 1,513) and Pune (39.5% of 914). The question offered a routine check-up or preventive consult, a full-body blood panel, a company health camp, a fitness assessment, and also a doctor visit for a specific symptom or illness, so the list covered more than preventive care. The figure records an answer selection, not confirmed absence of care: five of the 335 also ticked one of the named actions. The Preventive Care page sets out the question in full.

Stress is above too, at 41.5% of 772 putting the previous week at 7 or higher out of ten. That is level with Delhi NCR's 41.5% of 1,016, with Bengaluru's 41.3% of 1,566 two tenths of a point below: three of the five metros sit inside 0.2 points of each other, which is a cluster rather than a ranking. It is 1.1 percentage points above the all-respondent 40.4%.

The substances run the other way. Nicotine use of any kind is reported by 11.9% of 764 and any workday caffeine by 70.8% of 763, both the lowest of the five metros. Any alcohol, at 34.3% of 767, is below the all-respondent 37.3%, though Pune is lower still at 33.1%.

Sleep is the third row above the all-respondent figure, and the narrowest: 31.0% of 798 against 30.7% of 7,569, three tenths of a point. Among the metros only Mumbai is higher, at 36.0% of 1,040. That measure is a band rather than a clock. The option a respondent picked was "under 5 hours" or "5–6 hours"; a separate "6–7 hours" band sits outside it, and at 38.6% it is the largest single group of all respondents.