Many people consider type 2 diabetes to be mild – it really, really isn’t.
There’s nothing mild about a disease that can reduce life expectancy by up to 14 years. There’s nothing mild about a disease that per week accounts for:
This disease affects every aspect of a person’s body, including vision, the nervous system, the cardiovascular system and the renal system. It increases the risk of all forms of heart disease and dementia. It affects circulation and sensation and increases the risk of tissue damage and amputation.
Once, type 2 diabetes was relatively uncommon and mainly affected overweight middle-aged people. This is no longer the case. We’re now seeing children developing the disease with rates of type 2 diabetes diagnosis rising faster in the under-40s than the over-40s.
People who develop type 2 diabetes under the age of 40 have it particularly hard. They’re more likely to experience rapid deterioration in pancreatic function and have a greater incidence of adverse outcomes. A person diagnosed at age 30 will have life expectancy reduced by 14 years.
The NHS spends around 10%of its budget caring for people with diabetes. People with diabetes are admitted to hospital more often, especially as emergencies, and stay longer on average as inpatients. Diabetes is thought to cost the NHS £10 billion pounds per year. Nearly £8 billion of this is spent on treating avoidable complications, such as heart disease, kidney problems and nerve damage.
In the past 80 years, the number of people in the UK diagnosed with diabetes has risen from 200,000 to over 4.63 million.
Cases of type 2 diabetes are often preventable but those particularly at risk don’t necessarily know to reach out to health care professionals, something we should strive to improve. The rise in diabetes is driven by increasing obesity levels in the general population. But it is also results from an ageing population and increasing ethnic diversity. People of certain ethnicities, particularly those from South Asian and Chinese backgrounds, are at greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes. People of Afro-Caribbean ethnicity have double the risk of type 2 diabetes than white people.
Although some people are at increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes, biology is not destiny.
Lifestyle changes can prevent most cases of type 2 diabetes. The NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme. also known as Healthier You, identifies people at risk of developing type 2 diabetes and offers a face-to-face or an online digital programme to reduce risk. The face-to-face group receive personalised support to manage their weight, eat more healthily and be more physically active – actions proven to reduce a person’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
The digital service offers digital tools, such as wearable technologies that monitor levels of exercise, apps where users can access health coaches, online peer support groups and the ability to set and monitor goals electronically. Research indicates that completing these programmes cuts a person’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes by more than a third – a significant impact.
As nurses, we have a responsibility to look after our own health, that of our families and the patients we care for. Nurses encounter patients every day and we should make every contact count. We can all quickly assess people who we consider might be at risk of type 2 diabetes and encourage them to register for the NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme.
Enabling and empowering people to reduce their risk of type 2 diabetes can prevent them acquiring this devasting disease and maintain health throughout their lives.
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