Finalist
Home Truths: Uncovering our Risk of Diabetes in a Pandemic World
Summary of work
What if a diagnosis could change your life for the better? Finding out you are prediabetic may feel scary. But it could also be the wake-up call you need to make positive changes to the way you live. Lifestyle choices can prevent or delay the development of prediabetes into type 2 diabetes by up to 58%.
Every year, Merck KGaA raises awareness of prediabetes and diabetes around World Diabetes Day (WDD). In 2021, the campaign celebrated ’Home Truths’ – awkward but honest changes people had made to their lifestyles in lockdown, that changed their risk of diabetes for better or worse.
We used these truths to conduct campaigns that informed people about their changing risk of diabetes, and encouraged them to take a free and easy to complete, online prediabetes test. Our efforts set a Guinness world record for the most people tested ever for prediabetes – 47,000!
Judges’ comments
The Home Truths submission was a strong entry in terms of the depth of research provided. The judges also liked it because of the detailed impact diabetes can have on the patient’s day-to-day living, alongside interesting country-level initiatives.
