Diabetes Lifestyle Programme launched to tackle disease

The Malaysian Ministry of Health launched the Diabetes Lifestyle Programme (DLP) to make lifestyle intervention a standard practice in diabetes management. The programme aims to improve diabetes treatment outcomes and reduce the disease burden on patients, their families, the healthcare system, and the nation’s economy.

Ministry of Health Malaysia Medical Development Division Director Dr Mohd Azman bin Yacob launched the programme, representing the Health Minister. The Malaysian Endocrine and Metabolic Society, Malaysian Medical Association, Malaysian Family Medicine Specialists’ Association, Academy of Family Physicians of Malaysia, Malaysian Dietitians’ Association, and Malaysian Diabetes Educators Society are among the principal partners of the programme.

The Diabetes Lifestyle Programme seeks to address the “missing link” in traditional diabetes management practices, which rely on medication to control high blood sugar levels. However, lifestyle changes such as diet management, physical activity, blood sugar monitoring, and weight loss can reduce high blood sugar levels, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and the amount of medication needed.

DLP’s first objective is to train and develop healthcare professionals to become diabetes lifestyle advocates. DLP has trained over 3,000 healthcare professionals from different diabetes care team’s specialities, such as medical doctors, diabetes nurse educators, dietitians, and pharmacists. Of these, 1,000 have become full-fledged DLP advocates, 74% based in government settings.

DLP’s second objective is to empower patients with the necessary knowledge, skills, attitudes, and self-awareness to take charge of their lifestyles. The programme offers a web-based application featuring educational videos, interactive activities, free virtual dietitian consultations, and supporting materials to guide patients in the fundamental areas of lifestyle change.

This app is designed to help patients become more tech-savvy and enable healthcare professionals to keep track of their patient’s progress. DLP’s third objective is to facilitate the programme’s implementation in all healthcare settings, particularly at the primary care level. DLP recently embarked on a pilot project involving 60 Family Medicine Specialists from over 50 government health clinics to scale up the programme and benefit all diabetes healthcare professionals and patients nationwide.

The programme promotes simple lifestyle changes such as a balanced diet, wholegrain, high-fibre foods, doing household chores, or taking a brisk walk daily. DLP encourages people with diabetes to regularly self-monitor blood sugar to better understand their blood sugar patterns at different times of the day. The programme aims to help patients make lifestyle changes successfully with the assistance of healthcare professionals.

According to Datuk Dr Zanariah Hussein, Chairperson of the DLP Expert Panel, the programme will reduce the risk of diabetes complications, including heart attack, stroke, kidney damage, blindness, nerve damage, and leg amputations. The experts firmly believe that healthcare professionals’ responsibility is to help patients understand and make successful lifestyle changes and that DLP is the way to achieve that.