Award for Dutch educational programme on diabetes and infections

At the recent EASD meeting in Amsterdam, Dr. Leonie Venmans-Muller won the award for the best educational programme with her poster presentation on diabetes and infections. Dr Venmans worked at the Julius Center in Utrecht, in the diabetes research group which is headed up by Professor Guy Rutten.

People with diabetes have an increased risk for problems with infections. Most people, including some doctors, are unaware of this. Providing better information can help prevent these problems.

Three years ago, research by the team of Professor Rutten already showed that patients with diabetes were more prone to infections. People with diabetes are more likely to be sensitive to skin infections, urinary tract infections and infections of the lower respiratory tract (lungs). The infections are more acute, can lead to severe complications and are likely to relapse more often. Most striking result was that patients with type 2 diabetes have a twenty percent higher risk of developing a urinary tract infection and a thirty percent higher risk of contracting pneumonia.

The research group developed and tested a special educational programme on those two main types of infections for people with diabetes and for health care providers. They wanted to find out what people know about infections and diabetes and which is the best way to inform them. Also, it was important to find out how doctors can better predict who is more vulnerable to complications following an infection. The project was done together with GGDs and more than 100 GPs in four Dutch regions. They made brochures and organised meetings. Groups that received information in different ways were then compared. It is this educational programme that won the award at the EASD meeting.

The results of this programme revealed that reading a brochure on infections is not sufficient. Only those who had participated in an educational meeting were really aware of the risks. Professor Rutten’s team will now focus on the effects of their educational programme on infections in the long run. It will take a few years before they will know if people who followed the programme end up having fewer problems with infections.

Publications: See Muller LM et al. 2005; Venmans-Muller LM et al. 2006, 2007