India’s urban workforce is facing health challenges with blood sugar levels, sleep, stress, nutrition, and liver health well before middle age, says a new study.The Workforce Health Index (WHI) 2026 study, conducted by Loop Health, shows several core health risks have stayed stubbornly high, while a few lifestyle indicators have moved in the wrong direction.“Glucose dysfunction stood at 31.3% among urban employees tested in 2026. Nutritional deficiencies remain widespread, with 81.4% of Vitamin D reports below the sufficiency threshold and 73.9% of employee reports recording low Vitamin B12 levels. Besides 40.4 per cent surveyed people reported high stress,” it said.The report also captures changing patterns in how urban professionals access health information.It said 19.8% of respondents reported using AI tools such as ChatGPT for health-related information, while 19.7% cited Google and 54.0% said they referred to doctors or healthcare professionals.The survey analysed more than 8 lakh lab values across 11,400 health reports, over 9,000 survey responses and 74,000 hospital claims.It also found that blood-sugar dysfunction among employees increased from 16.7 per cent in their 20s to 33 per cent in their 30s and 52.9 per cent in their 40s. However, only 5.8 per cent of respondents across employees and dependents reported having been diagnosed with diabetes.Nutritional deficiencies were also widespread. Vitamin B12 levels were low in 73.9 per cent of employee reports, while 81.4 per cent of Vitamin D reports were below the sufficiency threshold. Among women employees, 34.6 per cent had haemoglobin below 12 g/dL, while 14.5 per cent of employees were identified with anaemia.The study said workforce lifestyle indicators showed that 30.7 per cent of respondents slept for fewer than six hours per night, while 40.4 per cent reported high stress.“Among women, high stress stood at 47.4 per cent and short sleep at 36.3 per cent. Cardiovascular indicators also raised concerns, with 47.3 per cent of employees recording low HDL levels and 23.7 per cent showing liver dysfunction,” it said.Loop Health co-founder Ryan Singh said the most important finding from the survey is how early these health risks are showing up, with one in three professionals in their 30s already showing blood-sugar dysfunction, and that is only one part of the picture.“We are also seeing high stress, widespread Vitamin D and B12 deficiencies, and a clear gap between the health risks people have and the care they actually seek. Most of these signals are visible well before someone feels unwell. That is where prevention has to start with knowing what is happening, getting the right medical guidance, and acting before a health problem becomes a much bigger one,” he said.At the metro level, Mumbai recorded the highest glucose dysfunction at 46.8 per cent, Delhi-NCR the highest liver dysfunction at 34.4 per cent, and Bengaluru the highest Vitamin D insufficiency at 83.9 per cent.The report also highlighted a preventive-care gap.“Only 24.3 per cent of respondents underwent full-body health screening during the previous year, while 42.3 per cent reported taking none of the listed preventive health actions,” it added.Driven by long working hours, high stress, desk-bound habits, and urban environmental hazards, these health issues span corporate office professionals to manual labourers.