Over 400 type-1 diabetes patients undergo annual health check at AIIMS camp

Read Also: Annual health check-up scheme for Delhi govt employees rolled out

Giving the camp an innovative colour, information on diabetes and its varied aspects were imparted to the crowd. They were educated on various issues ranging from injection technique, self monitoring of blood glucose, diet and physical activity among others.

Nukkad nataks and quiz competitions were also organised to sensitise people about the condition.

"The aim is to provide people with facilities for undergoing annual checkups and evaluate them for complications resulting from the type-1 diabetes at a single window on a single visit. This is a simple and cost-effective approach to generate good quality detailed data on the natural history of the disease and incidences of complications, " Dr Nikhil Tandon, professor and the head of endocrinology and metabolism department said.

Attending the camp on a day when ambient temperature had reached 2.4 degrees Celsius reflects the outstanding commitment and enthusiasm of our patients, he said.

According to Dr Tandon, poor follow-up as documented in the Registry of People with Diabetes with Young Age at Onset (YDR), established by ICMR, highlighted the need for newer and innovative strategies to ensure patients undergo annual reviews and are evaluated for complications resulting from the Type 1 Diabetes.

The registry was launched in 2006 to address the relative scarcity of information on youth-onset diabetes in India.

The major objectives of YDR are to generate information on disease pattern or types of youth-onset diabetes including their geographical variations within India and to estimate the burden of diabetes complications.

The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) in its latest edition stated that there has been a 51 per cent increase in diabetes cases worldwide, with South East Asia showing an increase of 74 per cent.

In 2019, 88 million diabetes cases were reported in the South East Asia region with India recording 15,900 new cases of type-1 diabetes, along with 95,600 existing cases among children up to the age of 14.