Taking Diabetes Head on
Diabetes is one of the top 10 killers and disablers in the world. It affects a nation financially, economically, and socially, since it leads to greater healthcare utilisation costs, mortality, morbidity, and loss of productivity, in addition to affecting individuals and their families.
According to World Health Organisation about 422 million people worldwide have diabetes, and
1.5 million deaths are directly attributed to diabetes each year. The figure is anticipated to rise to over
640 million by 2040, afflicting one in every 10 adults. Over 400,000 Singaporeans are infected with the disease. Singaporeans have a one-in-three chance of having diabetes in their lifetime, and the number of diabetics is only expected to rise.
In response to this, on April 13, 2016, the Singapore Ministry of Health (MOH) had declared War on Diabetes (WoD) to rally a whole-of-nation effort to reduce diabetes burden in the population. Now, with completion of five years, a study has revealed just how impactful this policy has been. The findings showed that the WoD policy generated a sense of unity and purpose across most policy actors.
Policy actors were cognisant of the thrusts of the policy and have begun to make shifts to align their interests with the government policy. Addressing those with diabetes directly is essential to understanding their needs. Being clear on who the intended targets are and articulating how the policy seeks to support the identified groups will be imperative. Issues of fake news, unclear messaging and lack of regulation of uncertified health providers were other identified problem areas. High innovation, production and marketing costs were major concerns among enterprises.
India and China, two major players on the global diabetes map, should launch national-level efforts similar to Singapore’s WoD to raise public awareness.
The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) reported that 463 million people have diabetes in the world and 88 million people in the South East Asia Region; by 2045 this will rise to 153 million. The IDF reported that China has 114.4 million diabetics in 2017 and predicted that it would reach 119.8 million by 2045. The estimated number of cases of diabetes in India in the age group of 20-70 years was 73 million in 2017 and predicted to reach 134 million by 2045.
Like Singapore, China has developed The
Diabetes Prevention and Control Action, one of the four chronic and noncommunicable diseases prevention and control actions, food and beverage in the Healthy China Initiative (2019–2030), a roadmap to a healthy China and an innovative public policy system project.
The Diabetes Prevention and Control Action, which together with other actions of the Healthy China Initiative, promotes the prevention and control of diabetes and contributes to achieving the goal of a healthier China. Other actions include health knowledge action, healthy diet action, national fitness action, tobacco control action, health promotion action for students, health promotion action for the elderly.
According to the China CDC report 2020, the current state of diabetes control in China may be due to the capability of government departments, society, and individuals to implement comprehensive prevention and control measures for diabetes and other health promotion not being fully formed and that existing strategies have not been well implemented.
In a similar vein, India has been implementing the National Programme for the Prevention and Control of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases, and Stroke (NPCDCS) since 2010, with a focus on raising awareness, early detection, treatment, and follow-up. Population Based Screening has begun for people above 30 years of age for diabetes and other NCDs. The suspected patients are referred to the health centre and followed up if diagnosed with diabetes. This intervention is expected to yield early diagnosis of diabetes and prevent future complications. Better management of diabetes may be ensured, once HbA1c is made available and accessible across the country.
There is a globally agreed target to halt the rise in diabetes and obesity by 2025. Apart from raising public awareness about the need to combat diabetes, a holistic approach with a proactive role of various stakeholders such as end-users, pharma and healthcare industry, the food and beverage sector, farmers, and others is required to rid the globe of diabetes.