'Shocking' results from VHI screening

TWO-THIRDS of people who have taken part in a VHI screening programme are overweight and more than a fifth are either diabetic or pre-diabetic.

The results, which will be unveiled at a health conference this week, have been described as “absolute shocking” by VHI medical director Dr Bernadette Carr who said they reinforced the need for a greater emphasis on disease prevention, especially in the area of obesity.

In January, VHI Healthcare began a pilot screening programme for type 2 diabetes for its 57,000 members between the ages of 45 and 75 who live within a 5km radius of either St James’s Hospital or the Mater hospital in Dublin.

The screening programme’s purpose is to identify those in particular who are at risk of the disease which is, in the main part, a lifestyle disease caused by obesity. It is estimated that 80 per cent of all type 2 diabetes cases could have been avoided if proper precautions were taken regarding diet and exercise.

To date about 550 VHI members have taken up the offer of a free screening with an expected 4,000 to take it up by the end of the year.

The initial results found that 64.8 per cent of those screened are either overweight or obese. Nearly 20 per cent (18.9 per cent) are obese. A total of 21.9 per cent have abnormal blood sugars suggesting they are either diabetic or pre-diabetic. Only a quarter of all those screened had no significant risk of getting diabetes and more than a quarter had at least one chance in six of getting the disease.

Dr Carr said the results were consistent with other studies including those carried out by Slán between 1998 and 2007. “Each of these three studies saw climbing results in terms of obesity,” she said.

“We will monitor it very carefully over time to ensure that the results produced at the end of it are consistent with the ones at the beginning. In terms of the international literature and studies done in this country before, there is nothing to suggest that the results are going to be any different at the end than they are now.”

Dr Carr will be one of the guest speakers at the National Healthcare Conference taking place on Thursday in the Burlington Hotel, Dublin.

She said the early results had reinforced VHI’s plans to devote more of its resources to illness prevention rather than just funding treatment.

“There is a big strategic shift happening in medicine and it is moving away from treating people to managing their lifestyle before and throughout their lives. People are living much longer, but, with increased life expectancy comes illnesses which are preventable.”

Dr Carr has suggested that Ireland should adopt programmes similar to the Epode (ensemble prévenons l’obésité des enfants) initiative in France which saw the level of obesity in children drop to half the national average because of an anti-obesity programme in selected French villages. “There has to be a big drive from society to assist the individual to live a healthy lifestyle. Knowing it is not sufficient,” she stressed.

Among those who will be speaking at Thursday’s conference include the president of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, Dr John Donohoe; the chief executive of Nursing Homes Ireland, Tadhg Daly; the chief executive of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland, Dr Ambrose McLoughlin; and solicitor Gerald Kean. For details, see nationalhealthcare.ie.