The Ministry of Health has included diabetes in the chronicity strategy for patient care with this disease and the prevention of its appearance, according to its headline, María Martín.

The counselor and the head of the Endocrinology Section of the San Pedro Hospital and promoter of the Diabetes Strategy (DM) in La Rioja, María Ángeles Martínez de Salinas, have presented, this new line of action, which begins this month.

In the chronic patient care strategy, which aims to reorient the health system to improve the care of chronic patients and reduce the incidence of these diseases, DM (Diabetes mellitus) is one of the pathologies prioritized in this project,has indicated.

With that of diabetes, there are already three strategies presented in La Rioja, after those aimed at COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) and chronic kidney disease.

A stratification of the population has been established to identify people at risk of getting sick and predicting the needs of people who already present the disease, allowing optimizing prevention and care programs.

Population segmentation has been carried out based on clinical complexity criteria, combined with criteria for the use of health resources.

An aspect that stands out in the strategy is the realization of a proactive and preventive approach to the disease against a healing vision.

The prevention of many chronic diseases, among which diabetes stands out, is aimed at treating and correcting preventable risk factors and related to bad habits and lifestyles, such as tobacco consumption, unhealthy diets and lack of physical activity, throughLow cost interventions, high impact and based on scientific evidence.

In addition, it is the approach to the attention to the people who have already developed the disease and who will require continuous care throughout life, and an assistance by different professionals (interdisciplinary teams).

Therefore, in the strategy it is proposed to use common action criteria and effective communication and coordination routes to guarantee the continuity of the primary and hospitable care.

It highlights the importance of making a comprehensive approach to the medical, functional and social care of patients, planning interventions individually based on these needs.

A key point of the diabetes chronicity strategy is that care focuses on the patient, which acquires the caregiver role of their own disease against the acute patient who only receives care.

More than 90% of decisions that influence the result of glycemic values ​​must be taken by the patient, so he must acquire, through therapeutic education in DM, the knowledge and skills necessary to train him in self -managementeffective of your illness.

in La Rioja, 18,000 diagnosed

Education is considered essential in the therapeutic approach of diabetes, since it improves metabolic control, favors adherence to treatment and helps prevent acute and chronic complications.

It also reduces hospitalizations, the consumption of health resources that this pathology causes and helps to reduce anxiety and uncertainty, while reducing the impact of the diagnosis of a chronic disease.

Diabetes is a chronic disease that appears when the pancreas does not produce sufficient insulin (DM type 1) or when the organism does not effectively use the insulin it produces (type 2).

The prevalence of DM in Spain is 13.8% of the population and half of the patients do not knowthat suffers from the disease.

In La Rioja 18,000 people have a record of this diagnosis in their medical history, but it is estimated that another 18,000 people have non -diagnosed DM, because in its initial stages it does not cause symptoms.

This causes that, at the time of diagnosis, almost half of the patients present one or more complications that lead to a reduction in the quality of life and can cause premature mortality.

Hence the importance of boosting the population in the population for an early diagnosis of the disease.