November was Diabetes Awareness Month and to celebrate, we at The African Pot Nutrition offered readers an opportunity to take an research based quiz to see if they were at risk for developing type 2 diabetes.
Why Take A Diabetes Risk Assessment?
According to the International Federation on Diabetes, more than two thirds of people with diabetes in Africa are undiagnosed. Untreated and undiagnosed diabetes can lead to severe health concerns such as blindness, heart disease, kidney failure, stomach concerns and nerve damage which in turn may lead to amputation (medical removal of a limb).
Diabetes can be prevented, delayed and/or managed, but knowing your risk for the condition is the first step.
Our goal was to inform and empower and through the process, we learned alot about the current state of Africans and diabetes.
Young people are interested in health.
Contrary to popular belief that the young aren’t interested in learning about chronic illness, 72% of survey respondents were under 45 years of age and only 8% of participants fell in the above 55 age group. This is great news because the IDF indicates that 79% of diabetes related deaths in Africa occured in people under the age of 60 (62% under 60 years old).
Africans are gaining weight
72% of people taking the assessment were either overweight or obese as defined by BMI above 25kg/m2.
The majority of Africans are physically active.
(Score!) 63% of respondents indicated that they engaged in some type of physical activity at least 30 minutes a day.
Africans Eat Fruits & Veggies
(Another score …and a little happy dance!) 63% of respondents eat fruits, vegetables or berries everyday.
Most have never taken Blood Pressure Medication.
Despite research suggesting that people of African descent are genetically predisposed to hypertension, a whopping 75% of participants have never taken medication for the condition. While this could be attributed to the relatively young age of the participants, it could also be indicative of a lack of screening facilities leading to under diagnosis of the condition.
Diabetes runs in African families.
A stunning 79% of respondents have an immediate family member or relative with diabetes but only 31% of respondents had ever been told they have high blood sugars. Since there is a strong genetic component to diabetes, we can assume that most of the people taking the survey are indeed at risk or as the statistics suggest, simply do not know that they have the condition.
After seeing these results, we decided to extend access to the quiz and mini-course on “Are You At Risk For Diabetes- and 5 Things You Can Do To Prevent It.” for a few more months.
The quiz only takes less than a minute and is used by many health organization to assess an individual’s risk for developing diabetes in the next 10 years.
Are you at risk ? TAKE THE DIABETES RISK ASSESSMENT QUIZ NOW
Want to know why you can do to prevent diabetes? SIGN UP FOR OUR FREE MINI COURSE.
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