Changing Diabetes Barometer Forum

The Changing Diabetes Barometer is a tool to measure progress in the fight against the diabetes pandemic.
The incidence rate of diabetes is increasing all over the world. The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) estimates that 246 million people worldwide currently suffer from diabetes, almost 6% of the adult population. This number is expected to reach 380 million by 2025; i.e., 7.3% of the adult population. Many of them will develop serious complications and need very expensive treatments. Moreover, as many as one third are not aware they suffer from this disease and, consequently, are neither taking any measures, nor receiving any treatment.
On December 20, 2006, the U.N. Resolution recognized diabetes as a serious global threat and encouraged all countries to establish adequate preventive and care policies within their national healthcare systems to face this pandemic.
Only 3 months later, at the Global Changing Diabetes Leadership Forum organized by Novo Nordisk with the support of the IDF, 20 delegations – comprised of representatives of institutions, policy-makers and journalists – acknowledged the situation, interacted to seek out new solutions and committed themselves to do their utmost to decisively change the course of this silent pandemic. The Forum established that the only way to manage an expanding disease like diabetes is to be able to measure it. This gave raise to the Changing Diabetes Barometer.
In fact, even though there exist throughout the world several excellent initiatives aimed at providing care to people with diabetes, only a small number of patients can fully benefit from them. Many countries have acknowledged the pandemic and implemented national strategies to cope with it, for instance, by training a greater number of healthcare professionals and improving access to medication. However, only a few countries have documented the current level of treatments or their effectiveness in keeping the situation under control in the long term.
In order to improve diabetes care, it is essential to constantly measure the state of prevention, progress and care of the disease at all levels in the different countries. This will make it possible to set parameters for the measurement of the healthcare provision, to single out the instances of best practice, and develop a form of “constructive” competition, which is necessary to promote change.
The Changing Diabetes Barometer is a container which makes it possible to measure the progress of the initiatives carried out across the world. It will give inspiration and drive the major stakeholders in the field of diabetes to take action and identify measurement criteria to be applied to the national healthcare systems. At an international level, this can be achieved by monitoring each country’s progress and collecting the instances of best practice. At a national level, the positive examples coming from abroad can be shared and used to further improve the actions set out by fund-providers, policy makers and healthcare professionals. The long-term aim is to establish a guideline used globally.

Changing Diabetes Barometer Report
The “Changing Diabetes Barometer” concept takes concrete form in the Changing Diabetes Barometer Report. Every year and on a global scale, this book collects the data concerning the extent of the diabetes pandemic, and indicates possible solutions to contain its impact.
The Report is a tool primarily directed to healthcare professionals, patient associations, policy makers, institutions and the media. It provides a national and international overview of the indicators related to prevention, progress and treatment of diabetes. It also provides information on the existence and extent of national strategies, thus providing valuable data on how to improve quality of care, decrease the incidence of diabetes-related complications, prolong the average life expectancy of people suffering from the disease, and reduce both human and healthcare costs.
The first Changing Diabetes Barometer Report, presented on November 7, 2007, at the European Parliament in Brussels, analysed 21 countries and pointed out that, in order to improve the effectiveness of diabetes care, it is necessary to know what actions are already in existence and document their progress. Following the collection, data need to be examined and used to learn about the existing actions, thus encouraging a “constructive” form of competition aimed at the establishment of an improved approach to diabetes care policies, as well as clinical and personal decision making processes.

Summary of Results
The first International Changing Diabetes Barometer Report has pointed out that:

Most countries have devised plans and initiatives which include diabetes in the agenda;
Only half of the countries under examination have a diabetes national strategy connected to government institutions;
In general, of the people living in countries for which data is available, less than half are in a situation of “good control” (glycosylated haemoglobin < 7%);
1 country out of 3 do not have data related to the incidence rate of diabetes. The U.S.A. and Israel are the only countries, besides Europe, that have data concerning these parameters;
1 country out of 3 do not have data concerning important diabetes care indicators such as A1c (glycosylated haemoglobin), blood pressure, lipid determination on an yearly basis. The U.S.A. and Israel are the only countries, besides Europe and Japan, that have data concerning these indicators;
Only 1 country out of 7 have an archive which includes historical documentation dating back prior to 5 years ago.

Only 1 country out of 7 have created systems for the recording of key care indicators (A1c, blood pressure, lipid determination, complications) in a dynamic database able to provide healthcare professionals with coherent support at a national level.