Increased urban migration in Nigeria has brought about a change of life style in terms of unhealthy diet and decreased physical activity. As a consequence, the incidence of diabetes is increasing.Unfortunately, knowledge of diabetes prevention and care is generally poor among health care workers and as a result many people with diabetes do not receive adequate care.The project seeks to improve prevention and control of diabetes in Ogun State, Nigeria.
The project has a two-pronged approach, aiming at 1) improving the overall diabetes care delivery and thereby preventing or delaying the onset of complications and 2) enhancing primary prevention of diabetes through awareness and education programmes.Initially, guidelines for diabetes management will be developed. The information contained in the guidelines will mainly be derived from the IDF Africa diabetes guidelines and will contain information on how to promptly recognise diabetes and what initial steps to take including reasons for referral. The guidelines should later serve as a prototype for the entire country.In order to improve health care workers' knowledge on diabetes care, a training programme will be conducted. 120 health care workers comprising of 40 doctors, 60 nurses and 20 laboratory staff will benefit from the training. The participants will be selected from 20 existing health facilities in 20 local governments in Ogun State.Senior cadre health care workers will receive five days training on basic diabetes management. Middle cadre health care workers will also receive a five-day basic course on diabetes management, but since they - as opposed to the senior staff - are often the ones who are directly involved in the day to day care of people with diabetes, they will also receive a subsequent three-day advanced course on the subject.Subsequently, the trained health care workers will establish 20 non-communicable disease clinics in their respective health care facilities throughout Ogun State. The health care workers will constitute the core staff at these clinics, which will be provided with equipment and newly developed education materials on diabetes and hypertension. Staff and other running costs for the clinics are covered by the respective health facilities.Apart from offering regular diabetes care, the non-communicable disease clinics will also form the basis for awareness raising. Community awareness activities including screenings for diabetes and its complications, workshops and public information meetings will be organised from the clinics on a regular basis.Awareness will also be raised through poster and leaflet campaigns, newspaper articles, walks and events for children and adolescents. It is expected that approximately 500,000 people will be exposed to the activities carried out by the non-communicable disease clinics.
•Treatment guidelines on diabetes for health workers have been produced.•377 health care providers (47 doctors, 219 nurses, 30 lab scientists, 25 pharmacists, and 56 other health workers) have been trained.•25 NCD clinics have been established in state hospitals.•Approximately 1 million people have been reached by awareness activities.•170,199 people have been screened for diabetes using risk score assessments; 1,850 cases of diabetes were detected and referred to clinics.•World Diabetes Day activities were celebrated on 14 November in 2009, 2010 and 2011.•Different SIDCAIN Conferences have been held.