New project to track down diabetes earlier
Physicians and pharmacists are co-operating on a project that determines if a patient should be tested for prediabetes, which could lead to measures to help prevent full-blown diabetes later on
Trial projects in Ghent and Sint-Truiden
“It is estimated that 300,000 Flemings have prediabetes,” sports doctor Luk Buyse of the Free University of Brussels (VUB) told Het Belang van Limburg. “The problem with prediabetes is that people don’t really notice anything, although damage to the heart, blood vessels and kidneys can already be done.” Prevention is thus of the utmost importance, he said.
Trial projects are underway in Sint-Truiden and Ghent, via general practitioners and pharmacists, who will administer questionnaires to at-risk groups. Those groups include over-65s, people with a family history of diabetes and those between the age of 50 and 65 who are overweight or have high blood pressure or cholesterol.
On the basis of their answers, doctors can decide who needs to be tested for prediabetes. If the trial is successful, the project will be expanded over the whole of Flanders.
Photo courtesy dovemed.com
