Diabetes research to help people in Kent
People living with diabetes could be empowered to make lifestyle changes thanks to new research at the University of Greenwich.
Local charity the Paula Carr Diabetes Trust is funding university experts to find out what support patients need to translate good intentions – such as healthy eating and regular exercise – into practice.
Lead researcher Dr Paul Newton said: “Controlling diabetes is about day-to-day things like diet, exercise and in some cases taking medication, all of which a person living with diabetes has to manage themselves.
“But people have a lot to juggle in their lives so changing their habits and routines can feel really difficult.”
Researchers will ask patients in Kent and Medway, the area covered by the Paula Carr Trust, what support they need to successfully self-manage. The study is called Promoting the Involvement, Engagement and Empowerment of People Living with Diabetes.
The research team includes public health expert Dr Mustafa Al-Haboubi and James Lambert as voluntary sector advisor, who was the corporate development manager at Volunteering England is now the university’s faculty of education and health business manager.
Diabetes affects around 2.6 million people in England and Wales and cases are on the increase. It costs the NHS about £25,000 a minute: that’s £1.5m every hour.
The Paula Carr Diabetes Trust is a charity that supports people in Kent and Medway living with diabetes.
The Trust was started in 1989 in memory of Paula Carr, who was born in Ashford and was diagnosed with diabetes in 1984 at the age of nine.
Tragically she died following a hypoglycaemic episode as she slept in 1988, two months short of her thirteenth birthday.