About 400,000 new cases of diabetes are diagnosed in Spain each year, according to the study di@bet.es promoted by the cyber of diabetes and associated metabolic diseases (cyberdem), a work carried out between 2016 and 2017 that has been presentedIn the XXIX National Congress of the Spanish Society of Diabetes, recently held and that the incidence of the disease in the adult population in 11.58 cases per thousand people/year.
In relation to these data, the portal to your health, of the newspaper La Razón, has recently carried out a round table entitled "Access to Diabetes Innovation", during which Sharona Azriel, Secretary of the Spanish Society of Endocrinology andNutrition (SEEN) said that “in the last five or ten years there has been a fairly radical change in the treatment of patients with this pathology.
Now the approach is more integral and goes far beyond the diabetes itself.Do not forget that cardiovascular disease is the most frequent cause of death in patients with type 2 diabetes, and we know that this is something we also have to treat ».
"We have a wide therapeutic arsenal, increasingAnother of the teachings learned at this time is that “an early approach and an aggressive start reduce complications.You have to change the paradigm towards early, intensive and global treatment ».
Experts also talked about the importance of intervening before even the disease appears.«There are a lot of diabetes, but also a lot of risk of having it.That is why you have to start by preventing, see why there is so much incidence and avoid it.That is why we have to advance in the early diagnosis, which is a work of doctors but also from the administration and the media, mainly through patient education, ”said Sagredo, who pointed out exercise and food,Together with medications, such as the three fundamental axes to treat diabetes.
According to Mercedes Maderuelo, Manager of the Spanish Diabetes Federation (Fede), «the number of diabetics in our country must be around six million, but the problem is not so much those that are already diagnosed as those that are not yet.It is estimated that some 2.5 million people are not yet detected and the sooner the complications derived from this disease are reduced.
The participants in the table agreed that, to achieve this, education, especially about life habits, is essential: «Up to 70 % of cases could be avoided only with good diet.The key is identified but the formation of patients is not achieved.Only 50 % of diagnosed people have received training in this regard, ”said Fede's manager.In this way, he continued, it would also be possible to improve adherence to treatment, that is, correctly comply with the medication prescribed by the doctor.According to Maderuelo, "only 56% of people with diabetes are adherents, according to another study by Farmaindustria last year."
The institutional vision of the problem was contributed by the Minister of Health of the Generalitat Valenciana, Carmen Montón.who said that «we have a very important challenge because we also talk about the sustainability of the health system.That is why the transformation of the system involves changing the classic welfare model, we must establish improvements in communication not only from the consultation but also try to achieve greater implication of the patient ».