FED: Diabetes confusion leads to fat blame

AAP General News (Australia)
08-05-2008
FED: Diabetes confusion leads to fat blame

By Tamara McLean, Medical Writer

SYDNEY, Aug 5 AAP - Parents of kids with type one diabetes say the condition is increasingly
being confused with the obesity-related form of the disease.

Half of parents surveyed say they are frequently blamed for their child's condition
by people who have mixed up the auto-immune condition with the more prevalent lifestyle
condition, type two diabetes.

More than 80 per cent of Australia's diabetics have the type two form, and numbers
are rising fast hand-in-hand with the obesity epidemic.

The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, which commissioned the survey, said widespread
publicity about so-called "diabesity" had created a blame culture that was affecting type
one diabetics.

"There is a feeling that the general public, and even some health professionals, do
not understand type one diabetes, and this can have a terribly negative impact on people
with the disease," foundation chief executive Mike Wilson said.

The survey of 2,300 people, both patients and family members, found one in four type
one diabetics had been clinically diagnosed with depression in their lifetime.

Among children, the rate was one in 10.

About half of adult patients or parents of young patients said they had encountered
a doctor who appeared to know little about the condition.

One in five patients said they would not class their condition as well managed, a statistic
Mr Wilson said was concerning as good management was proven to reduce the risk of stroke,
blindness and amputation.

The survey also showed that about 15 per cent of adults reported being denied help
for a hypo, a potentially life-threatening condition where blood sugar becomes dangerously
low.

Nearly 30 per cent said they felt "extremely worried" about having a hypo at work or
school, but more than half felt confident that their colleagues or school friends could
help them in an emergency.

About 700,000 Australians have diabetes, but just 13 per cent have type one, which
is characterised by little or no insulin production and generally develops in childhood.

Type two develops later in life, when lifestyle factors like weight, poor diet and
exercise stop the body using insulin efficiently.

AAP tam/jm/de

KEYWORD: DIABETES

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