Diabetes prevention programme making a big difference in Swansea Bay

A prevention programme aimed at helping people avoid developing type 2 diabetes is going from strength to strength in Swansea Bay.

The All-Wales Diabetes Prevention Programme, which launched in 2022, targets people who are found to be prediabetic, or at high risk of becoming diabetic, and helps them make the necessary lifestyle changes to avoid developing the disease.

Pictured above: Swansea Bay's diabetic support workers team with diabetes prevention dietitian Rachel Long second from right.

Recent figures show that of the nearly 3,400 people who had an initial appointment with the programme following referral from a GP, 30 per cent were no longer prediabetic 12 months later.

The programme offers patients a 30-minute consultation with a specially trained dietetic support worker.

This focuses on topics such as physical activity, healthy eating and promotes other lifestyle changes such as smoking cessation and alcohol reduction.

The programme is now available in all eight of the Swansea Bay primary care clusters – with a dietetic support worker based in each.

This week marks World Diabetes Day, with the disease placing huge pressures on healthcare systems around the world.

NHS Wales spends 10 per cent of its budget treating people with diabetes and this looks likely to rise if the current increase in patient numbers continues.

The expenditure works out as £2.88 million per day, with 80 per cent of these funds spent on diabetes complications such as heart attacks, strokes, kidney failure, nerve damage, blindness and amputations.

In light of these eye-watering figures, the team running the all-Wales programme in Swansea Bay is keen to raise awareness of type 2 diabetes risk factors and to help more patients avoid developing the disease.

Checks for risk factors include waist measurement, family history and ethnicity and you can check your own risk factor by going to Diabetes UK’s website here.

“If a patient has a concern after going through the risk factors or checking their symptoms, they can go to their GP and ask for a blood test to check their HbA1c levels, or blood glucose levels,” said Swansea Bay University Health Board’s diabetes prevention dietician, Rachel Long.

“When patients come in for their 12-month follow-up after the initial consultation, we ask them about the previous year and if they have been able to implement any of the lifestyle changes and goals that were initially discussed.

“We have a general discussion about how they have been feeling and then discuss their more recent glucose levels.

“If they have reduced, we encourage them to continue with their lifestyle changes.

“But if they’ve been finding it difficult to implement the changes, we offer further support within that session to try and help them move forward.”

While diabetes can cause symptoms such as excessive thirst, tiredness and needing to pee a lot, the condition can also increase your risk of getting serious problems with your eyes, heart and nerves.

Around 91 per cent of people presenting with the disease have type 2 diabetes, which is largely preventable. The remainder have type 1 diabetes, whose onset is largely unavoidable.

Obesity increased the risk of developing type 2 diabetes sevenfold, while being overweight increased it threefold. Which is why adjustments to diet and lifestyle should a patient be found to be at risk is so important.

Rachel added: “Until now a lot of patients hadn’t been made aware that they were at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

“So, when they do come into the consultation, it's been a little bit of a relief for them to be able to speak to somebody and have that advice.

“We’ve also had good success in engaging with the GP surgeries and working with them as well. They have been referring patients to us which is great.

“Prevention is better than cure and the follow-up data is showing real promise.”