The Diabetes Association of the Republic of China yesterday launched a new “Goal 50+” program to help people better understand, monitor and manage their diabetes and comorbidities, and improve the shared care of diabetes and chronic kidney disease.
About 2.21 million people have diabetes in Taiwan, association president Huang Chien-ning (黃建寧) said.
Although the crude mortality rate has fallen about 17 percent and the hospitalization rate dropped 21 percent in the past few years, the number of people aged 75 or older and 40 or younger with diabetes has increased, Huang said.
Photo: CNA
The association launched the five-year “Goal 50” program in 2018 to improve integrated care of diabetes and comorbidities, and as most of those goals have been met or surpassed, the group is launching the enhanced initiative, he said.
Goal 50+ is supported by the Health Promotion Administration (HPA), the National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA), the Taiwanese Association of Diabetes Educators and the Taiwan Society of Nephrology, he said.
The first program aimed to achieve at least a 50 percent coverage rate among people with diabetes in keeping glycated hemoglobin levels below 7 percent, getting routine urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio (UACR) tests and helping those with diabetic kidney disease to receive sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors.
NHIA Director-General Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) said that diabetes is one of the most common diseases in Taiwan, and chronic kidney disease ranks first among annual National Health Insurance costs for treating a single disease, with most of it used on hemodialysis, while diabetes ranks third.
Most people with diabetes develop multiple comorbidities, which often requires interdisciplinary shared care, he said.
Diabetes management is also closely linked with lifestyle factors, such as medication use, eating behavior, physical activity, sleep patterns and stress, so a person’s disease awareness and participation is crucial to the quality of their health management, he added.
The NHIA has been working with the HPA to improve people’s health awareness in disease prevention and encouraging them to seek intervention when they receive abnormal test results, Shih said, adding that the National Health Insurance Mobile Easy Access (全民健保行動快易通) app can help people track their health conditions.
Huang said that as more people are diagnosed with diabetes younger, they would need to control the disease and prevent comorbidities for longer, which is why the new five-year Goal 50+ program aims to increase the coverage of disease awareness, routine testing and integrated care.
The initiative aims to achieve at least a 50 percent coverage rate among people with diabetes in: being aware of their risk of developing chronic kidney disease; having glycated hemoglobin levels below 7 percent, blood pressure below 130 millimeters of mercury (mmHg) over 80mmHg and low-density lipoprotein levels below 100 milligrams per deciliter; receiving regular UACR tests and precision medicine according to diabetic kidney disease treatment guidelines; and participating in a new diabetes and chronic kidney disease shared care program.
A 2021 survey showed that about 52 percent of people with diabetes have insufficient knowledge about the risk of developing chronic kidney disease, while a 2018 survey found that only 44.1 percent have good control of their glycaemia levels, 36.3 percent have good control of their blood pressure and 70.9 percent have good control of their low-density lipoprotein levels, he said.
A 2019 survey showed that only 35.8 percent of people with diabetes receive regular UACR tests, Huang said.
As of Feb. 2, of the more than 770,000 people with diabetes and early chronic kidney disease who are eligible to join the shared care program, only 84,187 people did so, or 10.9 percent, he said.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to