Everything you need to know about diabetes

New information service informs about diabetes

The German Diabetes Center (DDZ) recently published a completely redesigned website aimed at educating those affected, relatives and the inquisitive about the widespread disease of diabetes. The focus is on scientifically sound facts about treatments and preventive care as well as information on possible accompanying and consequential illnesses.

With its new offer, the DDZ attaches particular importance to up-to-date, comprehensible and independent reporting on the topic of diabetes. An online tool, the so-called diabetes cockpit, which takes into account the BMI, blood pressure and blood glucose value of the user, should provide online an assessment of the state of health and the individual diabetes risk.

With 600,000 new diagnoses per year and 5.8 million people affected in Germany, diabetes has long become a common disease. (Image: Dmitry Lobanov / fotolia.com)

600,000 new victims per year

"Every year about 600,000 people are newly diagnosed with diabetes," reports the DDZ in a press release on the opening of the new website. This corresponds approximately to the population of the city of Dusseldorf. The high number of unreported cases is not included in this figure. According to estimates, 5.8 million people with diabetes currently live in Germany.

Diabetes cockpit

"The diabetes cockpit helps with the evaluation of personal health values," reports Professor Dr. med. Michael Roden, Scientific Director and Chairman of the DDZ. It informs users independently about the very complex disease of diabetes, taking into account the latest scientific findings and guidelines.

Affected people have many questions

"Often sufferers have many questions after the diagnosis of type 2 diabetes, which we want to answer with our diabetes information service," explains Dr. med. Olaf Spörkel, Head of the National Diabetes Information Center and Head of the Diabetes Information Service. The subject portal offers assistance for the new life situation.

Varied information

In addition to explanations of specific terms such as HbA1c value or bread units, the portal provides information about additional offers for self-help organizations, doctors, counseling centers and clinical trials. In addition, 16 videos, which were developed with the support of the Federal Ministry of Health to educate about the disease. Topics such as prevention, nutrition, exercise, treatment, the onset of the disease and the various types of diabetes are available.

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Co.

After more than 15 years the old website diabetes-heute.de will be replaced. Additional channels of social media should also be used. The contributions were to originate from the experts of the DDZ, as well as diabetologists, physicians, experts and independent authors from German-speaking countries. Interested parties can look around at diabetesinformationsdienst.de. (Vb)