World Health Day and Diabetes – JA CHRODIS Activities

Diabetes constitutes a major risk factor for health and a burden for the sustainability of health systems. The World Health Organiation focused their 2016 World Health Day on Diabetes and on this occasion, the Joint Action on Chronic Diseases (CHRODIS) published a policy briefing on National Diabetes Plan.

Diabetes is found to put important public health challenges on health systems worldwide. International Diabetes Federation figures show that globally the number of people living with diabetes has doubled in the last 20 years, with recent estimates for 2015 indicating that 415 million people live with diabetes.

Patients living with diabetes have to be literate about their condition, carefully self-manage and conduct a healthy life-style to prevent complications. For these reasons they are often a good example for patient empowerment. Beside patients’ role in the disease management, National Healthcare Systems have an important role at macro and organisational level to ensure a smooth running of services and ensure access to healthcare services for all patients.

The Joint Action on Chronic Diseases (CHRODIS) address these issues and in cooperation with the WHO European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies produced a Policy Brief onNational Diabetes Plans (NDP) in Europe. The Policy Brief is aimed to support European National Healthcare Systems improve the way they manage prevention and control programmes.

The analysis gathers findings from surveys conducted by CHRODIS partners and shows that countries in Europe have taken measures to develop a systematic policy response to the diabetes burden but overall there is no agreed standard on investment in and implementation of comprehensive strategies for the prevention and treatment of diabetes.

Building on the CHRODIS mapping exercise, this policy brief has identified a range of factors that appear to facilitate the development, implementation and sustainability of national diabetes plans. Facilitating factors are: national or regional leadership, involvement of concerned stakeholders, patient representation in plan development and implementation, availability of adequate resources for the implementation of NDPs. The Policy Brief stresses that monitoring and transnational learning are equally important to the successful implementation of NDPs, while adequate evaluation and measurements are required to reassess and improve the implementation process.

The full Policy Brief is available here

Contact person: Valentina Strammiello, Programme Officer.