Education

Type 1 diabetes is a complex and challenging disease due to its physiological, behavioural and psychosocial characteristics. Diabetes care and education is life-long and people who are affected must adapt as they age. In 2011, IDF launched the 3C Study – Coverage, Cost and Care of type 1 diabetes, in collaboration with the Chinese Diabetes Society, in order to understand better how this disease affects people living in the Beijing and Shantou areas.

In 2011, the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Diabetes Centre in Sydney, Australia, joined the voluntary network of International Diabetes Federation (IDF) Centres of Education. There are currently eight such centres providing excellent diabetes care and education services in Latin America, Asia (including the Indian sub-continent and China), Europe and now Australia. Central to the aims of the Centres of Education are efforts to increase regional capacity to respond to the diabetes epidemic.

Successful implementation of structured education programmes that teach people with type 1 diabetes to use insulin flexibly around normal

Australian diabetes healthcare professionals in Melbourne learned about the DAFNE programme for people with type 1 diabetes in 2004, during a visit to the International Diabetes Institute there by Stephanie Amiel. Rather like the UK teams a few years earlier, a teamof nine health professionals from four Australian centres undertook DAFNE training in the UK that year. Prior to this, there were no evidence-based group programmes providing structured education for people with type 1 in Australia.

The Guatemalan Ministry of Public Health puts the prevalence of diabetes in urban areas of the country at around 8%.Diabetes complications have become a primary cause of death and disability and an increasing burden to individuals, families, society in general and the economy of the country.

Human resources for healthcare in West Africa are among the world’s most limited, severely restricting the capacity of countries in the region to provide effective, equitable public health services to their people. Indeed, the lack of health professionals throughout sub-Saharan Africa has become a significant barrier to achieving the UN’s millennium development goals.

There are 285 million people living with diabetes worldwide, the number of affected people is predicted to reach 438 million by 2030. Because of the rapid increase in diabetes prevalence, the number of diabetes complications is rising equally quickly. Amputation is one of the most feared of these complications. People with diabetes are at risk for nerve damage and problems with the supply of blood to their feet. Nerve damage results in a reduced ability to feel pain and, as a consequence, injuries often go unnoticed. Moreover, poor blood supply can slow down the process of wound healing.