Charity’s warning over ignorance on diabetes

Only 30 per cent of the 1,000 people who took part in the survey were aware that people with Type 2 diabetes are more likely to go blind, while awareness that heart attacks, amputation, and stroke are possible complications of diabetes was even lower.

And just 13 per cent of people knew that the condition increases risk of death, despite people with Type 2 diabetes being 36 per cent more likely to die in any given year than someone their age who does not have the condition.

The £2m campaign, which encourages people to have their risk assessed, is being targeted in areas where there is a high prevalence of the condition.

More than 224,000 people have been diagnosed with diabetes in Yorkshire, while there are an estimated 66,700 people in the area with Type 2 diabetes who do not yet know it.

The campaign aims to raise awareness of the risk factors – being overweight, having a waist of over 37 inches if you are a man (35 inches for South Asian men), or 31.5 inches for women, having a close relative with diabetes, or being over 40 (over 25 for black and South Asian people).

Up to 80 per cent of Type 2 cases could be prevented.

Diabetes UK chief executive Barbara Young said: “You only have to spend five minutes talking to someone who has lost their sight or has lost a leg as a result of Type 2 diabetes to realise the devastating impact the condition can have.

“But this survey makes it clear that most people do not understand the potential consequences of developing it and I worry that until we finally lay to rest the myth that Type 2 diabetes is a mild condition, it will continue to be seen as something that is not worth being concerned about.”