“Breakthrough” in supporting South Asian community and diabetes

A new tool to help people who may be at risk of type 2 diabetes asses how likely they may be to develop the condition, has been hailed as a “breakthrough” success by diabetes experts after being translated to help people with a South Asian background.

The Leicester Risk Score, part funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), is recommended by health watchdog NICE and has attracted more than 1.1 million online users.

The tool looks at figures based on age, sex, BMI (body mass index), ethnicity, family history and use of blood pressure drugs to identify people who may be at high risk of type 2 diabetes, or are currently undiagnosed.

The tool is now available in Gujarati and Bangladeshi language versions for use within South Asian communities across the East Midlands to help prevent new cases of type 2 diabetes. Further versions in Urdu and Gurmukhi Panjabi will be available soon.

Height, waist, gender and age are recorded to work out if your body is within a healthy weight range

Professor Kamlesh Khunti, Director of NIHR CLAHRC East Midlands and Professor of Primary Care Diabetes and Vascular Medicine at the University of Leicester and fellow co-founder of the Leicester Diabetes Centre, said: “This is a breakthrough in delivering support to the South Asian community in the fight against type 2 diabetes.

“The condition is more common in South Asians because of their lifestyle in terms of their diet and lower physical activity levels combined with their potentially increased genetic risk.”

Members of the South Asian community are now being urged to make use of the risk score to find out how likely they are to develop the condition – or to see if they already have it.

Professor Khunti added: “It’s important people know how likely they are to develop the condition as they can make lifestyle changes to halt the progress.”

The production of the new tool was supported by the Centre for Black and Minority Ethnic Health East Midlands, which is working to reduce ethnic health inequality in the region by sharing resources and promoting research.

The translated versions of the tool were recently launched at Leicester Diabetes Centre in Leicester.

The launch event was attended by the National Clinical Director for Obesity and Diabetes Professor Jonathan Valabhji and featured presentations by Professor Melanie Davies CBE, Professor of Diabetes Medicine at the University of Leicester and co-founder of the Leicester Diabetes Centre; Leicester East MP Keith Vaz, who is the chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Diabetes; Dr Andy Willis; and Naina Patel.

Read more about the Leicester Risk Score

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