Boosting Diabetes and Pre-Diabetes Screening in Rural Ghana via Mobile Phones Apps
BackgroundDiabetes is a growing worldwide disease with serious consequences to health and high financial burden. Ghana is one of the developing African countries where the prevalence of diabetes is increasing. Moreover, many cases remained undiagnosed, when along with per-diabetic cases they can be easily detected. Pre-diabetes condition occurs when blood sugar levels are higher than normal but are not high enough to be classified as diabetes, and it is still reversible.\n\nMethodsThis study proposes a novel method to increase diabetes and pre-diabetes detection, and to find new behavioral determinants related in rural Ghana. The screening approach was based on tests performed pro-actively by community nurses using glucometers and mobile phone apps. As a pilot for future policies, those glycemic tests were carried out on 101 subjects from rural communities in Ghana deemed at risk and unaware of their diabetic/pre-diabetic status. A comparison of dietary and lifestyle habits of the screened people was conducted in regards to a cohort of 103 diabetic patients from the same rural communities.\n\nResultsThe pilot screening detected 2 diabetic subjects (2% of the cohort) showing WHO diabetic glycemic values, and 20 pre-diabetic subjects (19.8% of the cohort) which showed the effectiveness of the user-friendliness approach. The need of further campaigns on alcohol consumption and physical activities has emerged even for the rural areas.\n\nConclusionsPolicies based on prevention screening as reported in the manuscript have the potential to reduce diabetes incidence and its related health-care costs in the country.\n\nTrial registrationNoguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research-IRB Study Number: 076/13-14 registered on 20.02.2017