They join preventative actions being carried out in more than 160 countries on the 14th November
To celebrate World Diabetes Day on the 14th November, nursing degree students from CEU Cardenal Herrera University in Elche (Alicante) participated in a voluntary event for the prevention of this illness last Sunday. They joined similar campaigns across the entire world. More than 200 member associations of the International Federation of Diabetes organised activities on this World Diabetes Day in more than 160 countries across the world.
The CEU-UCH students performed tests to measure the various risk factors for diabetes free of charge on all interested parties who approached the Centro de Congresos in Elche. They took blood in order to measure sugar levels, they measured blood pressure, they measured waist circumference, and they did the Findrisk test, all in order to detect the patients´ risk of getting diabetes in the next ten years.
For Ricardo Martín, a nursing professor at CEU-UCH and one of the coordinators of this initiative, “these tests, that we have been doing since 2005, have allowed us to detect more than 200 people with diabetes who subsequently went to their doctors to get treatment. One should not forget that 45% of people that have diabetes do not know it, hence the importance of early detection.”
This event marks the commemoration of World Diabetes Day organised by the Asociación de Diabéticos de Elche y Comarca [the Diabetes Association of Elche and Comarca]. CEU Cardenal Herrera University has been working with them to join similar initiatives across the world since the start of the nursing degree at the centre in Elche. Ricardo Martín says that the aim is that “the awareness that is generated in the university has an effect on society”.
