“This year the theme of World Health Day is diabetes, a potentially fatal disease that is constantly and dramatically increasing. If the trend continues it will reach epidemic proportions without making headlines. It is now time to put the evidence into practice. My deepest wish is to see a radical shift from treatment of diseases towards promotion of good health. We have solid evidence that this works.”
Currently in the EU, 32 million people are living with diabetes. Furthermore, one in five school children is obese or overweight already (a major risk factor for developing type 2 diabetes), and this number is on the rise. Globally, the number of adults living with diabetes rose from 153 million to 415 million from 1980 to 2015. By 2030, diabetes is expected to be the 7th cause of death worldwide.
The silver lining is that in many cases, type 2 diabetes is preventable and in some cases it is also possible to reverse it. As with other chronic diseases, risk factors include an unhealthy diet, being overweight and lack of physical activity. Experience has shown that simple changes in lifestyle can be effective in preventing or delaying type 2 diabetes. These include maintaining a normal weight, regular physical exercise and a healthy diet.
All policy tools, from education to awareness campaigns and from advertising to taxation, should be mobilised. Measures to trigger and accompany these changes should particularly focus on the younger generation and on providing healthy food in schools, replacing vending machines selling sweets or sugary drinks in schools with healthy alternatives, and making food low in salt, sugar and fat available and affordable for all.
As for type 1 diabetes, actions to improve the lives of people living with diabetes could include the further development of eHealth solutions enabling diabetic patients to monitor their own blood glucose and transmit the information electronically to their healthcare specialist. More broadly, increasing patient access to quality care across Europe and supporting research for finding new and more effective treatments will remain key objectives of health policy.
In the fight against diabetes and other preventable diseases, the most important remaining question is this: What will it take to truly start focusing on the promotion of good health and disease prevention? The challenge is to start seriously tackling the risk factors – not only obesity, poor nutrition, lack of exercise, tobacco, alcohol misuse and stress, but also wider social inequalities that amplify the risks for our most vulnerable citizens.
