The increasing burden of diabetes

ISAAC PINIELO
Correspondent | Thursday November 25, 2010 00:00

Dr Paul Nashara said a vast majority of the diabetics are found in the developing world. He was giving a keynote address during World Diabetes Day commemorations last Friday.

The theme of the day, which was celebrated by Nyangabgwe Referral Hospital, was: 'Diabetes Education and Prevention'. The hospital gave members of the public education on diabetes and free testing.

Nashara explained that the occurrence of diabetes of an epidemic nature is fuelled by the change in lifestyle in developing countries together with rapid urbanisation. He said diabetes affects a significant majority of the population, noting that it is the fifth leading cause of mortality worldwide.

'Because of its chronic nature, it significantly affects the quality of life. The economic cost of diabetes is huge and it over-burdens the scarce resources of health facilities,' he said.

According to Nashara, diabetes used to be considered as the disease of the rich West. He, however, noted that the recent recognition of the huge magnitude of the problem in the developing world alerts policy makers.

He said while the global disease burden has been shifting towards chronic conditions, health systems have not evolved to meet this changing demand. 'Care is fragmented, focused on acute care and emergent symptoms, and often provided without the benefit of complete medical information,' said the doctor.

He added that despite the importance of patient's health behaviour, and adherence to therapies to chronic conditions, the sufferers are not given essential skills to handle their conditions to the fullest extent possible.

Health systems do not have a long-term management plan for patients with chronic conditions to ensure the best outcomes. 'Instead, patients are left ill-equipped to manage their conditions until symptoms become intolerable, thus necessitating an urgent visit. Within the health service system, reliable medical information is not available across providers or over time,' he lamented.

He also expressed disappointment at health care, which he said is often poorly organised to make the best use of existing community programmes.

'This is especially problematic in low resource settings, where primary care services lack the capacity to meet existing health needs, and could particularly benefit from community linkage to organisations such as consumer groups and non-governmental organizations (NGOs),' Said Nashara.

Even so, he noted, chronic conditions are largely preventable, adding that all too often health care workers fail to seize provider-patient interactions as opportunities to inform patients about health promotion and disease prevention strategies.

He advised people to engage in regular physical activity and that they should have diets of low energy density that contain a wide range of carbohydrate foods rich in dietary fibre and of low glycaemic index.

World Diabetes Day is an annual national health campaign organised by the Ministry of Health countrywide. The day is intended to raise public awareness.