Comprehensive Diabetes Education

It is estimated that there are 70 million diabetic patients in India. In terms of disease burden, we stand second to China in the world and likely to surpass it in the next 15 years. Recent estimates suggest that diabetes control in India is suboptimal with an average HbA1C of 8.5% across the country. It has been estimated that about 20-30% of patients in India will have some form of diabetes complication at the stage of diagnosis itself and many times diabetes related complications are detected only in the late stage due to poor awareness among the patients.

Epidemiological studies estimate that 30 limbs are amputated every 60 minutes due to diabetes complications. Diet forms the cornerstone in the sustainable management of diabetes.

It is very well known that there are many misconceptions and legends running rounds regarding dietary management of diabetes. Keeping all these factors in mind, we have created a Comprehensive Diabetes Education Program. This program essentially explains everything a patient should know about managing diabetes at home. The scope of the program ranges from selection, portioning, balancing and composition of diet, various exercise programs which patients can take up based on their age and comorbidities, education on insulin handling, injection techniques and home glucose monitoring using a glucometer, tips for personal hygiene and foot care, and last but not the least the awareness about the order and frequency of periodic screening for diabetes complication mandated by various international diabetes forums.

In fact an original work based on this program titled “Beneficial effect of comprehensive diabetes education and physical activity program with carbohydrate restricted diet in 300 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus” has been presented in the prestigious International Diabetes Federation (IDF-2019) annual conference held at Busan in December-2019. The study revealed that effective implementation of this program improved glucose control and lipids and reduced weight significantly.