Decide Diabetes initiative brings together healthcare companies for the first concrete and collective effort to alleviate diabetes explosion in the UAE
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Diabetes continues to spread at an alarming rate and afflicts a staggering 366 million people to date. Recent reports from the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) indicate that diabetes is "a massive challenge the world can no longer afford to ignore". The condition causes 4.6 million deaths a year and a healthcare spend of 465 billion USD[1].
Diabetes forms the greatest health threat in the UAE today with 25 per cent of the population diagnosed with the condition. Diabetes is a serious and lifelong condition, and if not managed properly may lead to adverse health outcomes and serious complications.
A sedentary lifestyle and unhealthy dietary choices contribute to the increasing concern about the country's health. With the vast majority of cases in the UAE diagnosed as Type 2 diabetes which is caused by lifestyle factors like poor diet and lack of exercise, influencing change in behavior would not only greatly reduce the increasing number of diabetics, but also the incidence of health complications and life threatening diseases such as cardiovascular and renal failure that directly arise from diabetes.
Understanding the need for education, awareness and support to bring about lifestyle change, an alliance of concerned healthcare companies have joined forces to form 'Decide™' in the UAE.
Decide™ is an alliance of leading pharmaceuticals and healthcare companies that aims to educate, raise awareness, provide support and the relevant products to help patients and health care professionals diagnose, treat and manage the symptoms of diabetes.
Supported by organizations such as MPC, Servier, Astrazeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Nestlé Health Science, Merck Serono, Lifescan, and Medtronic, Decide™ is an innovative and unique initiative of major healthcare companies in the UAE that recognizes a better education and greater awareness of the condition could lead to the successful prevention and management of diabetes.
"What excites us about Decide™ is that for the first time, there is a true understanding and alignment from all stakeholders as to what the problem is, and more importantly what we can all do to help," says Jan Felton, Managing Director of MPC.
He added, "The problem is not diagnosis or even how to treat diabetes, it is educating the patients and most importantly, helping them decide to do the right thing and to live life to the full with diabetes".
As an alliance, Decide™ has a greater voice and further reach than a single concerned entity, and by pooling their resources together, Decide™ is able to reach out to a greater number of people and change how society behaves and treats diabetes.
Decide™ conveys the "Live Life To The Full With Diabetes" message through an all-round strategy of providing support not only to diabetics and their immediate carers, but also to professional healthcare practitioners such as doctors, dieticians and health authorities. This holistic approach is further supported by a web-portal (www.decidecommunity.com) that will not only disseminate up-to-date information but also act as a platform and forum for diabetes.
Source: Zawya and Decide Diabetes 28/09/2011