To educate consumers on one of the leading causes of vision loss and blindness, Prevent Blindness has created a new resource, the "Diabetes and the Eyes" toolkit. Materials are available in both English and Spanish.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that diabetes is the leading cause of new blindness in adults. According to the Prevent Blindness study, "The Future of Vision: Forecasting the Prevalence and Costs of Vision Problems," more than 8 million Americans have diabetes-related retinopathy. Those numbers are projected to sharply increase in the future by 35% to 10.9 million by 2032 and a 63% increase to 13.2 million by 2050.
Diabetes-related eye disease refers to a group of eye problems that people with diabetes may face as a complication of the disease, including diabetes-related retinopathy and diabetes-related macular edema (DME). The "Diabetes and the Eyes" toolkit includes an educator course, fact sheets, infographics, and assistance resources.
The educator course is created for health care professionals, community health educators, diabetes educators, and anyone in a caregiving or diabetes education role. The course equips health educators with important patient education messages about diabetes-related eye disease and strategies for maintaining healthy vision. It provides education to individuals living with diabetes as well as populations at highest risk for developing diabetes. The course includes a PowerPoint presentation, a script, a pre- and post-test, and a course evaluation form.
Three factsheets about general information are provided. Information about symptoms and risk and diagnosis, treatment, and prevention is available to educate patients and the public.
Shareable graphics designed to be used for social media and media communication to educate patients and the public are also included. Users are encouraged to post messages with #VisionandDiabetes.
Assistance resources were created to help patients seek the eye care that they require by understanding barriers to access, ways to navigate their health care systems, the intricacies of health insurance and eye care, and an understanding of eye care assistance resources.
For more information on the Diabetes and the Eyes program, readers may visit http://www.preventblindness.org/diabetes-resources. For general eye health information, readers may also call Prevent Blindness at 800-331-2020 or visit http://www.preventblindness.org.
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