World Diabetes Day

What is World Diabetes Day?

World Diabetes Day aims to raise awareness of diabetes as it affects millions of people across the world, this is estimated to be nearly 4 million in the UK alone. 90% of those with diabetes have Type 2 diabetes, so this day encourages health checks to gain early diagnosis and educates on the symptoms and complications of diabetes especially if left unmanaged.

Diabetes is the body’s ability (or lack of) to produce or utilise insulin which controls the glucose levels in the blood, causing them to be too high. Type 1 is where the body doesn’t produce insulin and Type 2 is where the body either doesn’t make enough insulin or it doesn’t utilise it effectively.

World Diabetes Day falls on the 14^th of November every year. The 2021-2023 theme for World Diabetes Day is access to diabetes care.

How is World Diabetes Day Celebrated?

Globally, World Diabetes Day is centred around providing diabetes education, to allow people to recognise the symptoms and raise awareness. Part of this is encouraging people to take a health test to check if they have diabetes or what their risk of developing it is.

Along side this, general awareness raising and fundraising for diabetes charities takes place and people share their stories of diagnosis and living with diabetes to encourage others.

World Diabetes Day and Employment

Diabetes could become present in any workforce at any moment, with someone diagnosed every 2 minutes. Employers can:

• Support diabetic employees and consult with them on their individual needs.
• Create a plan for the scenario an employee may experience Hyperglycaemia or Hypoglycaemia, which could include a buddy system, someone who is trained to spot the signs and provide treatment or action the necessary emergency escalation.
• Encourage healthy lifestyles with benefits such as cycle to work, reduced gym memberships and providing fruit or healthy snacks.
• Raise awareness of diabetes by sharing facts on the signs, symptoms, and diagnosis.
• Encourage the workforce to know their risk by sharing the Diabetes UK tool: https://riskscore.diabetes.org.uk/start
• Encourage 40 – 74-year-old employees to utilise the NHS Health check https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/nhs-health-check/