Global Changing Diabetes Leadership Forum: Youth Report from Anja Nielson

Anja Nielsen is a 22 year-old Danish student of Molecular Biomedicine at the University of Copenhagen. A long time diabetes advocate, Anja was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 14, in June 1999. Anja considers herself lucky to live with diabetes in Denmark, which provides easy access to free healthcare. Since January 2003 Anja has been a member of the Youth Council of the Danish Diabetes Association. Her areas of responsibility have been media and cooperation with Youth Councils in Sweden and Norway. Currently, she serves as the Vice President of the Youth Council. Anja is also a member of the Novo Nordisk Youth Panel and is an IDF Youth Ambassador. She is especially concerned with making it easier for everyone to lead a healthy lifestyle, as well as improving the psychological well-being and quality of life of those living with chronic diseases such as diabetes.

Here is her report from Novo Nordisk’s Global Changing Diabetes Leadership Forum.

On March 12-14, 160 delegates from 18 countries gathered in New York City to discuss the future of diabetes. A variety of different stakeholders were present, including industry, government officials, media, patient organizations and people with diabetes. When attending such meetings, I always wonder what the outcome will be. It’s great to put a lot of clever people with extensive networks in the same room and all agree that diabetes is a big problem.

But where do we go from there? The problem and urgency of the issue have been identified, now should be the time to implement some concrete initiatives for action.

Bill Clinton’s speech, as well as a Socratic Dialogue involving 12 panelists, provided a framework and overview of problems and the future we would like to see for diabetes. Then it was time to come up with ideas for solutions. The participants were grouped according to countries to determine which issues should have the highest priority and therefore be addressed first. Then actions and barriers to those actions were identified. For the group representing Denmark and Sweden, it was quickly decided that focusing on secondary prevention – that is, prevention of long term complications in those already diagnosed with diabetes – would have the greatest impact. This may be achieved through a greater focus on quality assurance and quality cycles in the care of patients. Also, education of general physicians caring for people with diabetes should be enhanced.

Dan Jørgensen, Member of the European Parliament, stressed the importance of working together with other interest groups to make a greater impact on politicians. When considering diabetes prevention, the goal is a healthier population overall. Therefore, it does make a lot of sense to collaborate with other organizations, working towards the same target.

The last day of the meeting was concentrated around sharing commitments for changing diabetes. The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) and Novo Nordisk committed to publishing documents that will complement each other. IDF will continue updating the Diabetes Atlas, which documents the problem of diabetes worldwide. Novo Nordisk will start publishing an annual Diabetes Barometer, which states the state of diabetes in countries all over the world. Is there a national diabetes plan? Is the plan followed up by political action and resources? Is it working? Are we breaking the curve of increasing incidence of people with diabetes? Novo Nordisk also acknowledges the need for transparency, measurability and driving change through being an example.

In Australia, an Obesity Declaration has been made. The mission is to reverse the rates of obesity and overweight, since Australia ranks high as being one of the fattest nations of the world. The goal is to prevent the rise in obesity by 2010 and reduce the number of obese and overweight children by 50% in 2015. This is being done by engaging key stakeholders because the current numbers regarding obesity and overweight in Australia are a cause for alarm and needs urgent action.

Martin Salkow, a 23 year old South African living with type 1 diabetes, made commitments on behalf of youth and as an IDF Youth Ambassador. We as young people have unique skills to contribute with, as young people are much more likely to listen to other young people than to the older generation. We can make changes because we have the passion it takes.

As a person living with diabetes who is very passionate about improving the lives of people with diabetes, looking back on the Leadership Forum gives me mixed feelings. I saw lots of commitment and passion but I would like to see some action. The example of the Obesity Declaration from Australia and the idea of a Diabetes Barometer from Novo Nordisk seem great, I look forward to following the progress of these initiatives and the ideas suggested for implementation back in Denmark.

For more information about the Forum, click here.

Break the silence

Break the Silence is a short film about diabetes seen from the perspectives of 25 IDF Youth Ambassadors from around the globe.

The video was filmed in December 2006 during the IDF Diabetes Congress in Cape Town, South Africa. The 25 Youth Ambassadors were gathered for a workshop to create an action plan for how they as young people living with diabetes can support the UN resolution on diabetes and contribute to ensure that the resolution is implemented in their home countries.

 

World’s Fattest Countries

Forbes recently published a list of the fattest countries around the globe. Here are some snippets from that article:

“No matter how you tip the scales, Americans are getter wider every year. What’s worse is that many nations are following suit.

In a list of the countries with the greatest percentage of overweight people, Nauru tops a list of countries with the greatest percentage of overweight people, with an alarming 94.5% of its adult population (ages 15+) classified as such, based on the most recent estimates by the World Health Organization (WHO). The Federated States of Micronesia, Cook Islands, Niue and Tonga round out the top five, all with a portly population of over 90%.

The U.S. weighs in at No. 9, with 74.1% of those over 15 years old considered overweight. But given that its population is nearly 20,000 times that of Nauru, clearly the U.S.’s size belies it rank.

Experts say it is not surprising that people across the globe are increasingly becoming overweight. They blame urbanization and the influx of Western ways of life including myriad fast food choices, little exercise and stressful jobs.”

The article also highlights the South Pacific, a region where changes in lifestyle, and its consequences, are evident.

Read the full article: Forbes.com

A Recipe for Success

The HEAL Partnership, part of the Prince of Wales’ International Business Leaders Forum, recently published a report on how the private sector can engage to promote health. A Recipe for Success: how food companies can profit from consumer health makes a series of recommendations as to how companies should address consumer health and obesity issues, from strategy and governance to reformulating products and funding consumer and employee health programmes. This final version of the report reflects the comments received from a wide range of stakeholders consulted between July and October 2006.

Recently, a growing trend shows that the private sector can, and should, engage in health issues. In so doing they will:

• Protect revenues, market share and profits, or open up new market opportunities, thereby retaining the confidence of shareholders.
• Maintain and enhance consumer trust and corporate and brand reputation – a highly valuable asset in consumer sectors.
• Demonstrate their ability to effectively respond to consumer health concerns through voluntary means, rather than being forced to do so through regulation.
• Avoid costly and brand-damaging future litigation, should further law suits arise.

The findings of the report can be summarized as follows:

1. Food manufacturers seem to be more engaged and more advanced than food service companies or retailers, and listed companies had more fully developed responses than private companies.

2. No one company has yet adopted and fully communicated publicly a comprehensive response, applied in all markets, for all products and divisions.

3. None of the 25 companies assessed for this report has yet conveyed a clear set of objectives applicable across the whole business to respond to consumer health and obesity issues worldwide, or a strategy to deliver on these objectives.

4. Few companies have set targets or adopted KPIs – this report provides recommendations on what such KPIs might be. Companies are encouraged to adopt these KPIs, as appropriate to their businesses.

5. Reporting mechanisms, governance structures, measurable targets and responsibility and accountability for consumer health and obesity issues all need to be more fully integrated into core business activities and reporting strategies. It is especially important for companies to put in place, and explain, how they ensure that policies adopted centrally by group boards are communicated and acted on by all divisions in all markets.

6. It is essential that companies demonstrate their genuine commitment to addressing consumer health issues by developing responses in countries and regions where changing trends in diet and lifestyle are emerging as serious public health issues, although they may not yet be as serious as in Western Europe and North America.

7. The paucity of examples in several sections of the report, including action on affordability and accessibility, portion size and calorie control, suggests that there is an opportunity for further corporate action.

8. Responsible marketing, advertising and promotion of food products, with particular reference to children, remains a key issue for the food industry. Further thinking and action in this area is essential. Responsible companies need to ensure that they develop acceptable new approaches to promoting healthy, balanced lifestyles and diets in the rapidly expanding opportunities in non-broadcast media.

9. Companies need to better articulate and report on their responses to consumer heath and obesity in their annual report and accounts, corporate responsibility reports and on their websites. It seems companies are doing themselves a disservice by not pulling together and disclosing more about their work and progress in this area.

10. Companies need to engage more effectively with their critics, both by inviting them onto formal advisory panels, as well as engaging with them directly or working with them in partnership to find practical solutions to the global overweight, obesity and related chronic disease crisis.

11. Food companies should also seek opportunities at local, national and international levels to work in partnership with other sectors with coincident interests, such as the sports and fitness sector, medical, insurance, TV, advertising and education sectors.

12. Companies need to do more to promote a balance of healthy eating and active living initiatives, especially through sport and physical activity programmes, and these should be set within a wider strategy. Designing such programmes to achieve specific health outcomes is also important, but currently does not seem to be done.

Go to the full report: http://www.iblf.org/docs/RecipeforSuccess.pdf