New Delhi, 13 November 2018. To mark World Diabetes Day, Novo Nordisk Education Foundation (NNEF) and Novo Nordisk India Pvt Ltd have launched a ‘1000-day Challenge’ programme along with leading healthcare practitioners to address uncontrolled diabetes in India. Uncontrolled diabetes is a serious challenge in India with over INR 63,000 crore incurred in healthcare costs per year due to diabetes.
The 1000-Day Challenge intends to improve awareness and education amongst 150,000 practitioners and 10,000 paramedics through over 6,000 medical meetings and continuous medical education (CMEs) programmes over the said period.
In addition, for the first time, real-time data on the state of diabetes care is being made available through an innovative “India Diabetes Care Index”. The Index provides the average blood sugar control over 3 months of a given city through HbA1c data.
Dr A K Das, Senior Professor, Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences and Patron of the Impact India programme, said: “HbA1c levels will be adopted as the key performance indicator for this initiative. The India Diabetes Care Index reveals that the current average HbA1c of India is 8.56% against the usually recommended target of <7%. Through Impact India, we will work towards reducing the HbA1c levels of treated patients. Every 1% reduction in HbA1c reduces the risk of stroke by 12%, heart attack by 14%, diabetic eye disease by 31%, diabetic kidney disease by 33%, diabetic limb disease by 43%.”
The India Diabetes Care Index will be launched for at least 15 major cities over the next few months and will be updated on a quarterly basis.
The launch event in Delhi was attended by the top diabetes experts in India; former cricketer and Novo Nordisk changing diabetes® ambassador Anil Kumble and Royal Danish Embassy Ambassador, HE Peter Taksøe-Jensen.
Sharing the objective behind this ambitious initiative, Melvin D’souza, Managing Trustee, Novo Nordisk Education Foundation said: “The programme exemplifies our commitment towards improving diabetes care. Our aim is clear: to try and reduce the average HbA1c in India by at least 1% in partnership with various stakeholders. With this innovative approach we wish to understand some of the areas of key risk and vulnerability and partner in designing interventions that can bend the curve of the prevalence of diabetes.”
As part of the programme, Anil Kumble will champion a healthy lifestyle through measures such as encouraging daily exercise and reducing “social snacking” as well as the in-take of high calories and processed food.
India has 72.9 million people with diabetes. The prevalence of other common co-morbidities of diabetes like hypertension and high cholesterol levels are also high in India, around 26% and 14% respectively, further predisposing the population to an additional risk for heart and blood vessel diseases.
