Peer support important for diabetes control

Under a peer support program by the Beijing Diabetes Prevention and Treatment Association, 500 local diabetics will be selected for training to spread information and knowledge of self-management and diabetes control to other sufferers in the capital.

Each of the trainees will take care of 10 patients and the peer education is expected to reach 100,000 diabetes patients in Beijing, which has about 1.5 million diabetics, Chen Wei, director of the association, said at the program launch on Wednesday.

According to Chen, most diabetics in China average six hours of face-to-face consultation with doctors and they have to implement good self-management to control the chronic disease.

"Peer support and education, which have been proven effective to help control diabetes in many other countries in the world, will be introduced under the program to benefit the patients here," he said.

The training and education mainly targets eight aspects including control of blood sugar level, prevention of varied complications and lifestyle improvements.

The National Health and Family Planning Commission said China has more than 92 million diabetics, or 6.8 percent of the population on the mainland.