British Muslims with diabetes need for more targeted self-management support during Ramadan

Primary care professionals should ask Muslims with diabetes about fasting during Ramadan to help them make informed decisions about the effects on their health, researchers say.

Many British Muslims avoid visiting their GP surgery during the holy month because they do not want to be asked about fasting, research undertaken by researchers at the universities of Manchester, Keele and Southampton found.

The study, published in the journal Health Expectations, found that many considered fasting during Ramadan a religious duty that should be fulfilled in spite of their diabetes. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/hex.12163/abstract.

But many Muslims would welcome advice and support about how to fast safely, as long as they were trained and understood the importance of Ramadan to the lead author Dr Neesha Patel said.

Some Muslims avoided telling their GP they were fasting, while others who did see their doctor and were advised not to fast for health reasons went on to fast anyway, the study found.

Fasting causes short-term risks such as dehydration and poor diabetes control, while in the longer term it can cause poorer quality of life and increased risk of mortality, the study said.

Dr Anne Kennedy and  Professor Anne Rogers leads for the engaging self-management support theme in the newly established; NIHR CLAHRC Wessex who worked with Dr Patel on the study said; “ establishing the specific and changing circumstances of people struggling to self- manage is important for understanding and responding to needs at specific with appropriate information and advice . It points to the need to focus research on self-management the best ways to encourage diffusion, engagement  with  self-management support efforts  in the contexts within which patients, professionals and people in their health care social network can best make use of them”.

The Patient Engagement with self-directed support for long term condition management theme is one of 6 six programmes of research and implementation in the NIHR CLAHRC Wessex.

http://www.clahrc-wessex.nihr.ac.uk/

Prior to the 1st January 2014 we produced a Newsletter to provide details on the NIHR CLAHRC Wessex and a general overview.

Details can be found on the following link NIHR CLAHRC WESSEX – Introduction