Grant: Team Grant: Community-Based Primary Healthcare - LOI

Diabetes is a health problem causing limb amputations, blindness, heart and kidney failure, and death. The World Health Organization predicts that over the next 10 years, Canadian deaths due to diabetes will increase by 44%. Pre-diabetes is a condition where people are unaware that they have slightly higher than normal blood sugar levels because they feel well. Over 50% of people with pre-diabetes will develop type 2 diabetes (T2DM) in 8-10 years. Large studies in other countries show that T2DM can be prevented by eating healthy and exercising regularly. Sadly, strategies used in other countries were long and costly and have been difficult to use in Canada. T2DM used to be a disease of the older person, but it is now seen in children/youth because the rates of obesity and physical inactivity levels are rising. More than 17% of Canadian children/youth (5-17 years) are overweight, and 93% of children/youth and 85% of adults do not meet the recommended activity guidelines. There is an urgent need to prevent T2DM in Canada before it becomes an overwhelming health problem. We have a solid team of researchers, health professionals and government groups who will work together to develop ways to determine who has pre-diabetes in Canada, track these people through registries, and develop standard approaches to reduce the chance that they will develop T2DM in the future. We will use existing programs to develop a National pre-diabetic infrastructure, and develop novel approaches such as telephone-based peer support and telecommunication strategies (Facebook, tweets, text messages) that link community-based health care providers with clients across all age groups. We will ensure that Canadians become aware of the seriousness of pre-diabetes. Identifying and managing pre-diabetes will help to reduce the clinical and economic burden of T2DM in Canada. If we can reduce deaths due to diabetes by 2% over the next 10 years, Canada will have an economic gain of 1 billion dollars.