Educational programs will help fight diabetes

An increasing prevalence of diabetes in the Kingdom and in the Gulf countries will lead to improved national educational programs about the condition as well as more family support services throughout the Kingdom, according to a Saudi specialist in the disease. “Although several local, regional and international medical conferences are available for health-care providers, public educational programs targeting patients or families are limited,” said Dr. Bassam Saleh bin Abbas, head of the section of Endocrinology and Diabetes Department of Pediatrics at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center in Riyadh. “Patients and their family members should be the focus of these programs. The currently available preventive measures are not adequate. A strong indicator for that is the rapidly increasing prevalence of diabetes in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries,” the specialist noted. “As doctors, we spend a few minutes with the patients in a day and we meet them again after a period of two to three months,” Abbas said, adding that a family support network is definitely needed. “This kind of service is not widely available for diabetic children and their families. It should include comprehensive family assessments and counseling at home and at school. Individualized parent education and post-service follow up visits will no doubt improve clinical outcome,” the physician noted. He insisted that glucose monitoring of patients should be done regularly at home and family members of the patients should be taught on how they can help. Abbas, who is also the director of Insulin Pump Therapy Program of King Faisal Hospital, said diabetes is a growing global health problem. “Nearly 250 million people around the world have diabetes and one third of those people aren’t even aware they have the condition. The International Diabetes Federation calls the disease the epidemic of the 21st century.” Twenty years ago, he said the best information suggested that 30 million people around the world had the disease. He indicated that the federation expects that by 2025 the number of people living with diabetes will hit 380 million if nothing is done to prevent further progression. In Arab countries including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Bahrain, indicators for obesity and diabetes are alarming and the prevalence of diabetes exceeds 25 percent, he added. A study published in 2004 showed that 24 percent of Saudis above the age of 30 are diabetic and 14 percent are susceptible to the disease. Outlining the support available for families throughout the Kingdom, he said the treating medical team usually provides patient and family support during hospital admissions and clinic visits. “The provided health care includes education and management. There are several public awareness and educational programs for patients, health-care givers and treating physicians.” The media is also playing a major role in improving public medical knowledge. Several educational materials are available for this purpose. Online educational information, although limited, is available for the general public and diabetics. Several interventional and preventive measures are available and committees are held to overcome this growing medical problem, he noted. Stressing on regular checks on the glucose levels of diabetics, he said self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) provides significant benefits to patients with diabetes and their health-care providers. SMBG is increasingly recognized as an integral part of intensive therapy for all forms of diabetes. SMBG allows patients and clinicians to detect high or low blood glucose levels, thereby facilitating therapeutic adjustments to achieve long-term Hemoglobin A1C goals and also helps protect patients by allowing them to immediately confirm acute hypoglycemia or hyperglycemia. “This technology facilitates patient education about diabetes and its management by giving patients more self-care responsibilities and helps motivate people toward healthier behavior,” Abbas said.