A study undertaken by researchers at the University of Dundee explains to move away from the ‘one-size fits all’ care approach to transform care for individuals with type 2 diabetes.
Experts at the School of Medicine, University of Dundee worked with the University of Exeter to establish a means to determine how patients of type 2 diabetes are different from each other, and how clinical difference between them affects their response to treatment and long-term risks.
The study involved analysing data of more than 23,000 individuals with type 2 diabetes, and used it to develop a new method to understand how much people with type 2 diabetes are different from each other based on nine clinical traits.
The research undertaken by the Madras Diabetes Research Foundation is published in Nature Medicine.
Clinically, it requires to move away from one-size fits all approach for the management of people with type 2 diabetes with more precise care.
Importantly, the study explains how individuals with type 2 diabetes can be treated and illustrated in an intuitive manner the key reasons they have the condition, and use it to manage it better for reduced individual risks. For example, if three women are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes at the age of 60, possibly only one may be overweight and have developed the condition due to decreased insulin production from the pancreas. This will be related to low growth of diabetes and lower risk of complications.
On the other hand, the second patient particularly may have high blood pressure and be more vulnerable to eye complications.
Lastly, the third patient may be obese with high blood fats and show more resistance fir effects of insulin, implying to be at higher risk of heart disease.
