Successful measures to find the undiagnosed
Posted: 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