Successful measures to find the undiagnosed

Date published: 01 October 2007

Diabetes UK's awareness programme

In September last year, Diabetes UK launched Measure Up, the biggest awareness programme in its history, which aimed to identify as many as possible of up to 750,000 people in the UK who had diabetes but were not aware of it.  The simple message was that if you were aged over 40 or 25 if you were from a black and ethnic minority, with a waist measurement above a certain number of inches, you were at increased risk of having diabetes and should take a diagnostic blood test.

At risk waist measurements are:

• Men - 37 inches or more
• South Asian men – 35 inches or more
• Women – 31.5 inches or more

This message was communicated through advertising in national newspapers, health, consumer and ethnic community press reaching over 32 million readers, along with online advertising reaching more than 870,000. The Diabetes UK Roadshows, which visited towns and cities up and down the country saw thousands of visitors find out more on the risk factors for diabetes.  The political impact was maximised by placing over 300 posters in the City of Westminster.  The response was overwhelming.

More than a measure of success for Measure Up

• Over a third of people recognised that having a large waist increased their risk of developing diabetes and 1 in 8 acted upon the campaign messages.
• More than 150,000 adults went for a diabetes test during the campaign (MORI 2006).
• A further 60,000 shared the campaign information with friends and family another 50,000 took preventive steps and changed their diet after seeing the campaign.
• In addition, more than 1000 people were tested at Diabetes UK road shows, with a third of these referred to their GP or Lloydspharmacy for further tests.
• Lloydspharmacy tested an extra 1,000 people every week, performing a total of 11,000 tests during the month-long campaign – each one using a Unistik 3 safety lancet.
• The then Prime Minister, Tony Blair, expressed his support in a letter to Diabetes UK chief Executive, Douglas Smallwood, in response to a speech he made about people taking responsibility for their health.

Taking further measures in 2007
Diabetes UK is working to improve awareness still further this year with a repeat of Measure Up, again supported by an educational grant from sanofi-aventis and targeting those people most at risk of having undiagnosed Type 2 diabetes.  Running from August to November, the campaign aims to gain a further 25 per cent increase in awareness of Type 2 diabetes and is focusing on heart disease as a major complication of the condition. 

As anyone working in the diabetes care profession or related industry is aware, diabetes complications can affect the whole body, including the eyes, kidneys and nerves.  If not properly managed, it can lead to blindness, kidney failure and amputations.  Heart disease, however, is the complication that most commonly leads to premature deaths among people with Type 2 diabetes.  In fact, diabetes is second only to smoking as the leading cause of heart disease in the UK. 

Sizing up a huge health problem…
According to Simon O’Neill, Director of Care, Information and Advocacy Services at Diabetes UK, this is  ‘a national emergency’ since half of the people who are diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes already show the signs of heart disease.  Yet a 2006 MORI survey showed a worrying lack of awareness among the general public of the greater risk of heart disease faced by people with diabetes.  Only 28 per cent of those interviewed realised that diabetes could be a cause. 

…where every little helps
Once again, Owen Mumford’s UK sales and marketing division will be supporting Diabetes UK in generating awareness of the Measure Up campaign by including leaflets with product information and other customer communications.  To find out more about this year’s Measure Up campaign activities and to take a two-minute test on line to see if you are at risk, click here

Fiona Broster