Simple actions could wipe out heart risks for Asian diabetics

Apr 25 2005

New research, to be revealed on Tuesday 26th of April at the launch of the University of Warwick Medical School's new Clinical Sciences Research Institute at the University Hospital campus at Walsgrave in Coventry, has shown that very simple interventions to target the health care of UK Asian diabetics can almost wipe out the 40% higher risks of heart disease linked to diabetes in that community.

Warwick Medical School researcher Dr Paul O'Hare will use the launch of the Clinical Sciences Research Institute to outline that diabetes is four times more common in the UK Asian population than it is among Caucasians. Onset of diabetes can also be over a decade earlier among Asian patients and Asian diabetics face a much higher risk of renal and heart complications leading to a 40% higher mortality rate compared with Caucasians.

The researchers also point out that, on top of these increased diabetes risk faced by the Asian population, cultural and communication differences make health care delivery much more challenging for this community group.

The researchers studied what the effect would be of a special effort to target and reach out to the Asian community on the issue of diabetic and related health care. This effort attempted to overcome the health care delivery challenges posed by that community and tried to address the substantially increased health risks they faced in this case. They observed the results of this special pilot package of diabetes health care outreach to over 500 UK Asians in Coventry and Birmingham. The simple package included the use of multi-lingual Asian health workers led by a community diabetes specialist nurse.

The researchers found this approach provided a number of benefits but one of the most significant was an average drop in blood pressure of around 4mmHg in the Asian patients - research has shown that such a drop in blood pressure leads to a 35% reduction in the risk of heart disease. The simple tools of this new pilot outreach effort to the UK Asians had thus, in just one parameter, almost completely wiped out the huge 40% increased risk of heart disease traditionally faced by that community.

The researchers have now scaled their research up to a study of around 2000 people that will consider a wide range of possible diabetes-related health effects and implications for the NHS.