70% women unable to proactively manage diabetes! Yes as per a recent analysis of diabetes patients by Portea Medical, India’s leading consumer healthcare brand, has revealed that men outnumber women exponentially when it comes to selecting a diabetes care plan. The findings are based on comprehensive findings from a study of over 12,000 patients and reveal that even the tech-savvy women deprioritize their health. About 70% of women are unable to manage their diet due to busy schedules and indicates willingness in women to follow health recommendations. Need of the hour is to counsel both men and women on all aspects of diabetes and encourage them to seek help.
Women also seem to join the program at a relatively more advanced stage compared to men, The average fasting blood glucose level (FBS) for men who opted for the program was 155 while that for women stood at 165. The maximum engagement from women came from Karnataka (16%) followed by Kerala (13%).
Meena Ganesh, Managing Director and CEO, Portea Medical, said, “We have seen some interesting trends emerge from patient behavior. Of the people who are joining the program, most have recently been diagnosed with Diabetes and are seeking solution to manage their conditions without impacting their lives and livelihood. Even though, the percentage of women is far less than that of the men, women on the program are far more compliant than their male counterparts. They attend their counselling calls, follow their diets and are always ready with their parameters to be discussed in their scheduled calls. Portea believes that with theright product offerings, a great infrastructure can be built for helping people manage their disease along with their doctors, without the hassle of queuing up at clinics. This is what we are also trying to achieve with our comprehensive programme called PorteaInControl.”
Portea’s findings also indicate that about 47% of the women patients were suffering from diabetes for more than 5 years compared to 35% men. However, it is encouraging that about 30% of women with diabetes are serious about following the doctor’s recommendations and indicated that they are keen to gather maximum information on how to manage it. There is thus a need to counsel and handhold them to ensure that they understand the intimal impacts of the disease.
The study also found some challenges around the lack of access to diabetes management programmes such as poor connectivity, rescheduling of counseling calls, and lack of knowledge on how to use devices to monitor their condition. Many patients in the study believed that managing diabetes is more of a function of diet and exercise and less of medical supervision. About 74% of the patients in the program used the glucometer for the first time after joining the program.
PorteaInControl is a subscription programme for managing Type 2 diabetes via remote monitoring and health counselling. Through this, Portea offers a OneTouch Verio Flex glucometer + testing strips+ diabetes health coach (virtual) to every customer.
