Diabetes has a great impact on the daily lives of the persons with diabetes. Family members play an important role in the management of diabetes. The Center for Policy Research and Social Responsibility (CPR2) has recently conducted a study to evaluate the impact of family and hospital care for the persons with diabetes. According to the opinion of the respondents (who are family members of diabetics), 58 percent consider diet, drug and discipline — all required for the management of diabetes; whereas, 22 percent consider discipline;17 percent consider diet; and only 3 percent consider drug as important for the management of diabetes.
Diabetes is the disease which direly needs support of the family members to a major extent. With the support from the families, they can lead normal lives even with deadly diabetes.
Like every year, yesterday was observed as the World Diabetes Day which is the primary global awareness campaign for diabetes.
56 percent respondents think that their family members know that it is possible to lead normal life with diabetes. Again, 27 percent respondent’s family members believe that any disease can happen to anybody. Family members of 10 percent respondents consider that long term treatment is required for diabetes.
It has been found from the research that the diabetics suffer from lack of confidence, do not feel comfortable in attending family and social functions, can not participate fully in household affairs as they feel tired and cannot wake up early and also they remain depressed and suffer from anxiety. The role of family is very critical in resolving these daily life problems of the patients. A sympathetic and patient consideration approach of the family members can make the life of the patients more comfortable and meaningful.
The society can also play an important role by creating an enabling environment for the diabetics. A food choice for the diabetes patient should be available in the family and social gatherings so that the people with diabetes do not feel uncomfortable in those situations.
The state should take a leading role in disseminating basic information about prevention and it should also encourage and facilitate the awareness programmes of the NGOs. Media can address awareness programmes focusing on prevention and management of diabetes. It is also evident from this research that there are misleading information prevailing in the society about diabetes. So, an aggressive communication programme is needed to inform the mass people about the real facts of diabetes.
Bangladesh Institute of Research and Rehabilitation in Diabetes, Endocrine and Metabolic Disorders (BIRDEM) is coping with huge number of diabetes patients. On an average daily 2000 to 3000 diabetic patients visit BIRDEM daily. If we can improve family care and set more diabetic social care services, we can significantly lessen the burden.
An organised intervention by the government, health NGOs, citizen groups, media and other stakeholders is the need of the time for developing a diabetes-aware society through lifestyle research, family care, social communication, establishing patient support forum and policy making.
A careful and systematic approach of diabetes management can ensure a healthy life of diabetes patients and can help manage the most common form — type-2 diabetes.
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This article is produced from a research paper of The Center for Policy Research and Social Responsibility (CPR2) which was conducted by Dr Salim Rashid, Professor, University of Illinoise, USA, Dr Md Faruque Pathan, Professor, BIRDEM, SSM Sadrul Huda, Assistant Professor, East West University and Segufta Dilshad, Research Fellow, CPR2.
Source: The Daily Star, November 15, 2008
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