(ATHENS, Ohio—Nov. 10, 2014) With Diabetes Awareness Month upon us,
the Diabetes Institute at Ohio University, the Heritage College of
Osteopathic Medicine, and the College of Health Sciences and
Professions are making the most of November to spread the word about
one of this country’s – and this region’s – major health problems.
One in 11 people in the United States has diabetes – that’s more
than 29 million. One in four people with the disease don’t know they
have it. One in three adults is “pre-diabetic,” meaning they have
higher-than-normal blood glucose levels and are at risk of
developing diabetes soon if they don’t change their diet and
lifestyle. And the problem is even worse in rural Appalachian areas
(like southeastern Ohio) than in the rest of the country.
Those are among the many facts that the Diabetes Institute has
distributed to area high schools, which are sharing them with their
students throughout the month. And that’s just one of many such
projects the institute is pursuing with the help of the osteopathic
medical school and the health sciences college.
Melissa Standley, the Diabetes Institute’s director of
operations, explained that the full range of programs for Diabetes
Awareness Month corresponds to the four areas in which the
organization works. “We have a clinical, a research, an education,
and a community outreach focus,” Standley said. “So we actually have
four arms to the institute, and we have events planned around each
facet.”
In the area of education, for example, Standley cited a symposium
held Nov. 6, in which Frank Schwartz, M.D., J.O. Watson Endowed
Diabetes and Research Chair and professor of endocrinology at the
Heritage College, spoke on “Using Technology to Help Control
Diabetes.” That talk, Standley said, was aimed primarily at members
of the public rather than experts.
A research seminar Nov. 14, by contrast, is more for health care
professionals, as a speaker from the University of Toledo will speak
on the diabetes-related topic of “Metabolic Syndrome: Past, Present
and Future.”
Along with education goes community outreach. “We’re giving
supplies to all of the high schools in Athens County, and also in
Hocking County, to decorate a public area of the school to promote
diabetes awareness,” Standley said. “It’s to bring awareness to the
disease itself. We want people to know how widespread it is.”
This is particularly urgent in rural areas like Appalachian Ohio,
she noted, where Type 2 diabetes rates are significantly higher than
national averages. (Diabetes comes in more than one variety, of
which Type 1 and Type 2 are probably the most widely known.)
One new feature of Diabetes Awareness Month this year is the
participation of a newly formed Ohio University student group called
DOSES (Diabetes Outreach, Support and Education for Students). The
group, which will be staffing information tables at the first floor
of Baker Center on multiple days during the month, was founded
mainly as a support group for students with diabetes, but is
widening its focus to include more educational efforts, as well as a
long-range campaign to make the university more “diabetic friendly.”
Charles B. Riley, a College of Health Sciences and Professions
student from Glouster, Ohio, is president of DOSES. Riley said the
group originally came together in April 2013 “just to support each
other and have each other’s backs.” He explained that students with
diabetes often find that their professors and fellow students have
some odd reactions to the disease. Many diabetic students wear an
insulin pump that puts ongoing, measured doses of insulin into their
bloodstream throughout the day. Riley said this device tends to
prompt questions like, “Is your pump a Nokia phone? Is it a bomb?”
Heritage College Assistant Professor of Family Medicine Elizabeth
Beverly, Ph.D., is a faculty member who’s taken interest in the
DOSES group. She said students with diabetes have sometimes faced
obstacles, such as finding it hard to convince professors they have
a legitimate medical need for a snack or drink of water during
class, to avoid blood-glucose fluctuations. DOSES aims to help
overcome this type of problem with outreach and education, Beverly
said, noting that “you don’t have to be diabetic to be part of the
group.”
One of the group’s biggest goals, Riley said, is “to make Ohio
University the most diabetic-friendly campus in the nation.”
In the shorter term, however – including the month of November –
DOSES and others will be working to get the word out about diabetes
and its frequency, effects and treatments. One event Standley said
she’s hoping will get a big response is on Nov. 14, World Diabetes
Day, when the public is invited to dress in blue and come to Ohio
University’s Walter Field House at 2:30 p.m. to form a human circle
to raise diabetes awareness. A photo of the circle will be sent to
the American Diabetes Association.
Standley expressed appreciation for the partnerships the Diabetes
Institute enjoys with the Heritage College and the College of Health
Sciences and Professions, in getting the word out and helping fight
diabetes.
“The Heritage College has been very supportive of us, as has HSP,”
she said, adding that a transformational gift of $105 million to the
Heritage College from the Osteopathic Heritage Foundations in 2011,
partly aimed at addressing the nation’s high levels of diabetes,
“has really been a godsend.”
Though only two years old, the Diabetes Institute at Ohio
University is rapidly establishing itself as a significant research
and care center, and was recognized recently with the American
Osteopathic Foundation’s Excellence in Diabetes Care award.
A more complete listing of Diabetes Awareness Month events can be
found on the Diabetes Institute’s website, at
http://www.ohio.edu/diabetes/November-Events.cfm.
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