We recently carried out a survey on our website to find out more about people’s experiences of diabetes testing and now we have the results!
Our survey revealed that men are suffering with undiagnosed diabetes far longer than women before they are screened for the condition, and that it is taking people an average of six months from symptoms showing to being tested.
Men are lagging further behind than women taking nine months, five months longer than women who are being tested after four months from first experiencing the symptoms.
In the poll of 250 visitors to our website who have diabetes, only 40% of people with diabetes thought that the public is made sufficiently aware of the need to be tested for diabetes.
A high 62% of respondents admitted to being unaware of alternative places for diabetes screening including pharmacies, although the vast majority, 77% still preferred being tested by their GP over hospitals, pharmacies or home test kits.
According to Diabetes UK over half a million people in Britain (549,000) have undiagnosed diabetes. It estimates that there are almost 3.5 million people with diabetes in the UK and forecasts this figure will rise to five million people by 2025.
When it came to testing, 76% of those surveyed were screened for diabetes at their GP with 23% in hospital and only 0.5% at a pharmacy.
Thank you to everyone who took the time to enter our anonymous survey. Here are some of the comments:
“I wasn’t aware I might be diabetic, although I now realise I did have many symptoms. I attended my GP feeling generally unwell and she ordered blood tests which revealed I was diabetic. I think awareness could be improved, which may help earlier diagnosis.”
“I don’t think people really understand the seriousness of diabetes and the need to regularly check yourself.”
“I don’t think people realise how serious diabetes can be so just shrug the symptoms off. To have other places screen other than a GP would maybe encourage people who have to wait to get an appointment get screened earlier.”
“People still seem to think that to have type 2 diabetes you have to be very overweight and/or eat loads of sugar/sugary food. There is still a lot of ignorance surrounding diabetes.”
“It would be good if GPs offered quick finger prick tests to all those they see. Pharmacists could play their part by actively asking customers if they would like a quick test.”
