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Diabetes Risk Factors and Prevention Strategies
Awareness about risk factors is a prerequisite for the prevention of diabetes mellitus amongst diabetic patients. A questionnaire-based survey of diabetic patients adapted from “WHO-STEPS Surveillance” was performed during 2018 in Punjab, using descriptive statistics and multivariate logistic regression. The overall awareness level was found to be 83%, but perception and comprehension regarding risk factors and prevention strategies are still at a nascent stage. There is need for innovative awareness programmes and government campaigns on the consequences of lifestyle modification, sedentary lifestyle, and altering epidemiology of diabetes.
Diabetes mellitus, more simply called diabetes, is a chronic metabolic condition that occurs to happen when the pancreas does not produce adequate insulin or when the body could not efficiently use the insulin produced by pancreas (Alberti and Zimmet 1998; WHO 1999). Diabetes is recognised as a major chronic epidemic that does not consider ethnic backgrounds and monetary levels in both developing and developed economies (Mumu et al 2014; Unnikrishnan et al 2016). Diabetes can affect individuals at the very onset of their productive age, impoverish households, reduce the life-expectancy of people, and has been designated the status of “public health priority” (Zimmet et al 2001; International Diabetes Federation 2015). As of 2015, more than 415 million individuals have been diagnosed with diabetes, and the number is estimated to escalate to 642 million by 2040 (Tripathy et al 2018). In monetary terms, diabetes constitutes an enormous economic burden globally, with an
estimated healthcare expenditure of USD of 727 billion being spent annually by diabetic patients, which corresponds to one for every eight dollars spent on healthcare for that particular year. (International Diabetes Federation 2017)
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