The Link: Vol 16 No 9

Diabetes UK
Diabetes UK launched its “15 Healthcare Essentials” campaign a year ago to highlight the checks and services that people with diabetes should be receiving to reduce the risk of complications.
The campaign has been welcomed by people with diabetes and healthcare professionals. One year on, the charity continues to encourage nurses to hand out 15 Healthcare Essentials leaflets to patients living with the condition, so that they know what to expect from their healthcare team.

The Essentials outline the basic level of healthcare that people with diabetes – type 1 or type 2 – should receive from their healthcare team.  They include: blood glucose, blood pressure and cholesterol checks; monitoring of eyes, kidney function, legs, feet and weight; individual care planning, smoking cessation advice; emotional and psychological support; and guidance on accessing specialist care and education courses. Without these checks, people with diabetes are at increased risk of developing complications, such as amputation, blindness, kidney failure and stroke.

The leaflets are now also available in Hindi, Bengali, Somali, Arabic, Polish, Gujurati, Urdu (Nastaliq) and Punjabi.

To download or order leaflets go to www.diabetes.org.uk/15-essentials.

University of Leicester
A new study led by the University of Leicester, in association with colleagues at Loughborough University, has discovered that sitting for long periods increases your risk of diabetes, heart disease and death.

Importantly, associations were independent of the amount of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity undertaken, suggesting that even if an individual meets typical physical activity guidelines, their health may still be compromised if they sit for long periods of time throughout the day.

The analysis, which combined the results of 18 studies and included a total of 794577 participants, was led by Dr Emma Wilmot, a research fellow in the Diabetes Research Group at the University of Leicester. Dr Wilmot said:

“The average adult spends 50–70% of their time sitting so the findings of this study have far reaching implications. By simply limiting the time that we spend sitting, we may be able to reduce our risk of diabetes, heart disease and death.”

Interestingly, the most consistent associations were observed between sitting and diabetes, suggesting that those in high-risk groups may be able to help reduce their future risk of diabetes by reducing the time spent sitting.

Leeds Metropolitan University
Leeds Metropolitan research, which highlights discrepancies between type 1 diabetes services in Yorkshire and the Humber, was presented at the International Society for Paediatric and Adolescent Diabetes in Istanbul.

The 3-year project, “Join Us On Our Journey” led by Dr Nicky Kime, looked at children and young people with type 1 diabetes treated by one of nine healthcare trusts in the region.

Dr Kime is a Senior Research Fellow at Leeds Metropolitan working with the university’s award-winning “Getting Sorted” enterprise unit, which specialises in research with children with type 1 diabetes. She said inconsistencies in services were uncovered throughout the trusts and that all nine sites in Yorkshire and the Humber had a different way of working and managing patients. Dr Kime commented that:

“The UK has the worst rate of type 1 diabetes in Europe and the communication between the young people, parents, paediatric and adult diabetes teams is regarded as essential to improving care.”

The aim of the Getting Sorted unit is to develop, influence and enhance service redesign and service improvement for diabetes in the UK.