- In Mexico it is estimated that there are at least nine million people with diabetes.
- In less than half a century, diabetes has become one of the main health problems in Mexico.
- 30% of adults over 50 years of age and 14.4% of those over 20 years of age live with this condition.
Experts in diabetes They agreed that education is the main tool for success in managing this condition. The reason is because it is a public health problem that affects more people in our country every year. If the trend continues, there is even a risk of collapsing health systems because there is no infrastructure to care for so many patients.
During the press conference “Impact of education in the proper management of diabetes”, Dr. Ángel Nuño Bonales, Director of Management in Public Policies of the Secretary of Health of Jaliscoshared how the entity is working to be the first state in the country with a nominal registry of people with Type 1 Diabetes. This is an innovative policy throughout Latin America.
“Type 1 diabetes, formerly known as juvenile diabetes, can represent between 5% and 10% of diabetes cases in the world. In Mexico it is estimated that there could be around 165 thousand cases of DT1”.
Management of type 1 diabetes
He also noted that the construction of the Public Policy for the Care of Children and Adolescents with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus in Jalisco It has 4 components. The first is a nominal state registry of Type 1 Diabetes cases; the second is a social communication campaign on care for people with this newly diagnosed condition; the third is the training of health personnel and, lastly, comprehensive diabetes education.
In Mexico City, the experience of the impact of diabetes education was in charge of Dr. Ruben SilvaDirector of the Clinic Specialized in the Management of Diabetes in Mexico City.
“Through the application of a questionnaire we identified that only 15% of the people surveyed have a sufficient level of knowledge in diabetes, which translates into 85% not having an adequate level of knowledge.”
Dr. Silva mentioned that socioeconomic status and education are associated with the level of knowledge about diabetes and these directly affect the control of blood sugar levels in people who live with this condition.
It is a fact that the diabetes education It is associated with the improvement of glucose, blood pressure and cholesterol goals. Furthermore, he reiterated that this information would be addressed in greater depth in the 32nd National Diabetes Congress.
From the Mexican Diabetes Federation (FMD) an example of the impact of education on treatment was also presented. Gisela Ayala, Executive Director of the institution, shared the results of “Taking control of my diabetes”, a program funded by the World Diabetes Foundation (WDF) to improve the quality of life of people with Type 2 Diabetes.
Through educational courses for more than 4 thousand 387 people for three years in various cities of the country and evaluations for the participants, the FMD identified how patients, having greater knowledge about diabetes and biochemical values, achieved better results in studies such as capillary glucose , glycosylated hemoglobin, total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and triglycerides.
“The truth is that they are important advances because it was only diabetes education and this leads you to improve adherence to your treatment, whether with pills, insulin or both, everything that diabetes education offered was shown in improvements in the parameters clinicians of the interviewees.
In less than half a century, diabetes has become one of the main health problems in Mexico. 30% of adults over 50 years of age and 14.4% of those over 20 years of age live with this condition, according to the National Health and Nutrition Survey (ENSANUT). Therefore, the importance of having a population with access to education on this condition is vital.
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