20% of the South Asian community has type 2 diabetes in contrast to 3% of the general population. This means that South Asian people are 3 times more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than white Europeans in the UK. From the 2011 census, the Muslim population within England and Wales is approximately 2.71 million (4.8%). The estimated number of UK Muslims with diabetes is 320,000. There are risks associated with fasting in people with type 2 diabetes: low or high blood sugars, dehydration and thrombosis, and hospitalisation. As a result, fasting has previously been uniformly discouraged by the medical profession. A Safer Ramadan aims to overcome these barriers between HCPs, patients and religion to provide education and awareness of how people with type 2 diabetes can safely fast during Ramadan with help from their health care provider. LCCCG provided 30k for the rollout of safer Ramadan across the city for Ramadan 2019.
There are 3 components.
- HCP training
- community champions,
- education sessions.
The BME centre team have recruited 12 community champions and 6 educators. BME centre maintaining contact with the community champions, engaged from the Somali community.