General care

Public need more help in managing their chronic diseases

30 July 2007

Burgess Hill, England. Eight out of ten adults in the UK would be willing to self-management their condition if they were diagnosed with a chronic disease, such as diabetes or cardiovascular disease, according to a survey conducted on behalf of Roche Diagnostics (1).

Those who are able to self manage chronic diseases already, however, are not making full use of the information and technology available. In diabetes for example, two out of five adults have poor blood glucose management, putting them at risk of complications (2).

Roche Diagnostics, a pioneer in monitoring solutions for people with chronic diseases, is driving a campaign for greater awareness of the information, support and technologies that are available to help patients in the self-management of their condition.

There are currently 17.5 million people in the UK who have a long-term health condition (3). The cost of caring for the complications associated with these conditions is rising, and with diabetes alone it is around £1 billion every year (4). Many complications are caused through poor self-management, which could be avoided if the patient was able to take advantage of the information, support and technologies that are available to them, such as education packs, monitoring systems, support groups and training courses (5).

Diabetes UK reports that only 6% of their patient members undertook associated training available to them in support of their self-management in 2005.(6)

With a growing body of evidence pointing to the importance of blood glucose self-monitoring (7), awareness of the available support is growing but could always be greater.

One such study (8) reviewed by Debbie Hicks, Nurse Consultant in Diabetes, showed a close association between self-monitoring of Type 2 diabetes with reducing serious complications (such as heart attack, stroke, blindness and amputation), and improved life expectancy.

The drive to raise awareness and access to information and education on the role of self-management is crucial considering that people with diabetes spend 8,757 hours a year self-managing their condition, compared to only three hours a year with a healthcare professional (9).

Debbie Hicks said: "It is positive news that the concept of self-management is being embraced by the public, but it is clear that many people with diabetes are struggling as they fail to achieve good self-management. There is a wealth of support out there such as blood glucose monitoring systems and education packs, yet we need to raise greater awareness of their availability and encourage people to take advantage of them as appropriate. Speaking to a healthcare professional is one such way of sourcing this information."

In conclusion Debbie Hicks said: "Successful patient self-management is vital and requires a potent mix of the correct treatment, usage of monitoring systems and good professional education and support. I welcome the fact that Roche is helping to raise awareness of this."

References

1. TNS Survey conducted April 2007 amongst 1,001 UK adults age 16+.

2. Diabetes UK. Diabetes: State of the Nation 2007. London: Diabetes UK 2007. www.diabetes.org.uk/Documents/Reports/SOTN2006_full.pdf

3. Department of Health. Supporting People with Long-Term Conditions. 2005. The report is available from:  www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/
PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_4100252

4. National Diabetes Strategic Programme Board, Wanless Report 2002

5. All Primary Care Organisations in England and Wales must, by law, provide people with diabetes with structured patient education. The UK National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence has guidance on the use of patient-education models for diabetes: www.nice.org.uk/page.aspx?o=68326;

6. Diabetes UK. Heartache Report 2007.
www.diabetes.org.uk/Documents/News/Heartache_report07.pdf

7. Diabetes Control and Complications Trial on Type 1 diabetes (New England Journal of Medicine, 329(14), September 30, 1993); Martin S, Schneider B, Heinemann L, Lodwig V, Kurth H-J, Kolb H, Scherbaum W A: Self-monitoring of blood glucose in Type 2 diabetes and long-term outcome: an epidemiological cohort study. Diabetologia (2006) 49: 271-278; Hicks D (2005). Is it worth monitoring blood glucose levels in Type 2 diabetes? Journal of Diabetes Nursing; Vol 9: 369-372; Welschen L, Bloemendal E, Nijpels G et al (2005). Self-monitoring of blood glucose in patients with Type 2 diabetes mellitus who are not using insulin. The Cochrane Library 2005, Issue 4;

8. Martin S, Schneider B, Heinemann L, Lodwig V, Kurth H-J, Kolb H, Scherbaum W A. Self-monitoring of blood glucose in Type 2 diabetes and long-term outcome: an epidemiological cohort study. Diabetologia (2006) 49: 271-278.

9. Department of Health. Working together for better diabetes care. May 2007. www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/
PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_074702

To top

Save this page on del.icio.us

To top