This is one of those guidelines that you look at, makes you want to cry, then wouldn’t normally bother to read. But it is actually packed full of really useful information and advice to give patients about diet and exercise. I will try to summarise the most useful bits, but it’s a long document… I have also put weblinks to exercise referral programmes, walking for health and some handy patient information onto the microsite under ‘patient wiki’. There really isn’t anything earth shattering in this, but it formalises everything, so hopefully fewer patients will be missed.
Why do we need to do this?
Lots of research has shown that using risk assessment to find people at risk of diabetes and then giving advice and programmes to help, reduces the risk of diabetes by up to 50%. The more changes the individual makes, the bigger effect.