• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Questions from interested Design Student

D

DuoDesign

Member
Messages
5
Location
London
Hi!

This seems like an active and fun community so I was wondering if I could ask for some help with my project? My name is Susan, I'm a design student from the Royal College of Art in London and I've got a a question for anyone kind enough to give me some opinions!

I'm basically wondering what the implications of being diagnosed as diabetic are in addition to the medical and lifestyle changes. For example, is there an impact on medical or life insurance, employment, has anyone experienced negative financial effects for a diagnosis, or or put off having a test because of this? I'm trying to understand reasons for using/not using home diagnostic kits for early diagnosis.

Thanks for reading, I look forward to any replies! :D
 
There are indeed problems that come with the diagnosis of diabetes.

You will still get life insurance but your premiums will be higher.
Travel insurance is often much more expensive.
Critical illness policies taken after the diagnosis won't include complications arising from the diagnosis.
It may be more difficult to get the job or promotion you want if you are seen as not being as reliable or as safe as an employee.
 
DuoDesign said:
I'm trying to understand reasons for using/not using home diagnostic kits for early diagnosis.
Click to expand...

Because they're not reliable enough. Mostly peoples blood sugar levels are between 4 - 7m/mol.
Diagnostically three readings over 11 is diabetes.
A 'normal' persons blood sugar can be 11 if they've eaten a large, high carb meal full of quick actng carbs. E.g a big bowl of rice with full fat coke.
Infection can also raise results.
If you have a few of these results, you can easily wrongly label yourself diabetic.
Some people have a higher natral blood glucose than others, simply because it is a range of values, not a set one. Some people will always be perfectly healthy sitting on the upper end.

The home meters aren't meant for that. They're a guide to how we're doing once diagnosed.
They have quite a large margin of error, as they're expensive and difficult to manufacture, and they're good enough as is.
Only a Hba1c test / oral glucose tolerance test can show that.

I've never had a problem with employment, and i don't have life insurance.
I worked for 18 months in Switzerland as a chalet manager / ski instructor, 9 months in america doing various jobs, and in a french bakery in Solihull.
It's honestly never been an issue... or maybe i'm just that thick skinned i haven't noticed lol.

The implications... It's consuming.
Completely consuming. I have a Malamute dog that i take sledding. If my huband is coming, i'll usually be riding the bike. Which means less insulin for the day.
Each meal, calculate amount of fat/carbs/protein..... wil i need 1 or 2 to cover this?
Will i be exercising in the next 2hrs... will I be having a bath?
You have to get used to having numbers fly arond your head.
It's not the worst thing that can happen by far, nowhere near.
But I would give anything just to be able to go into a cafe, pick something, and just eat it.
 
Wow, those are some really useful replies! Thank you all so much for taking the time to help me, it really gives me an insight, so hopefully i can make a much more informed design contribution.

I didn't know that home diagnosis kits were so unreliable, or that a non-diabetic's blood sugar varies so much.

Thanks again!
 
DuoDesign said:
Hi!

This seems like an active and fun community so I was wondering if I could ask for some help with my project? My name is Susan, I'm a design student from the Royal College of Art in London and I've got a a question for anyone kind enough to give me some opinions!

I'm basically wondering what the implications of being diagnosed as diabetic are in addition to the medical and lifestyle changes.
Click to expand...

The implications seem to vary with your outlook on life. Certainly no one likes being diagnosed as diabetic and, as you note, it represents a huge change in your likestyle and outlook. Someone as old and decrepit as myself having the support of my other half can take it in my stride with little real change to my life. I just grabbed the bull by the horns and made the necessary adjustments (and to be honest, I actually feel a lot better for it).

On the other hand contrast the thread started by the mother of the 16 year old who has just been diagnosed. From a 16 year old's perspective, the life she knew just ended to be replaced by something completely different. These probably represent extreme views.

DuoDesign said:
For example, is there an impact on medical or life insurance, employment, has anyone experienced negative financial effects for a diagnosis, or or put off having a test because of this? I'm trying to understand reasons for using/not using home diagnostic kits for early diagnosis.
Click to expand...

If you are taking out new life insurance, then diabetes will certainly rack the premiums up or may even deny you cover altogether. An existing policy is unaffected because the life company took the risk when they covered you at the time. Similarly, medical insurance should also be unaffected because again, they took the risk when they covered you. The only time it becomes an issue is if you discontinue cover and then try to restart it - then they will exclude it.

However: you must note that even if you suspect that you may be diabetic, you are still required to declare this on any application for insurance because an insurance contract is one of ultimate good faith. You are required to declare any material fact even if the insurance company don't specifically ask you. The penalty for not declaring is that you pay premiums for a policy that is void.

Travel insurance is different. Even if you have a continuous policy, you still have to declare any medical conditions applicable to any trip that you make. They will adjust the premium accordingly or may even exclude cover, possibly only for that condition. Travel insurance that automatically comes as part of certain charge cards is unaffected (but always check the exclusions).

Employment should be completely unaffected because diabetes is a specific condition covered by the Disability Discrimination Act. In fact employers are required by law to make reasonable adjustments to accommodate an employee with diabetes. It doesn't always happen though.

Home testing meters are extremely useful to diabetics to understand how different foods affect their blood glucose. But they are not particularly accurate and should never be used to diagnose the condition. If you used one of these meters and it read (say) 7.1 first thing in the morning, you might be inclined to consider yourself as diabetic (after all the guidelines state that anyone with a fasting BG over 7.0 should be considered diabetic). The little BG meter actually reads lower than the glucose level from a properly conducted laboratory blood test (because they measure different things). Also, the meter may have over read by a considerable margin and the real BG level could be as low as 6.1 (near enough normal) or possibly lower. Of course, equally, it could easily have under read by a similar margin and you could be really diabetic rather than only just diabetic.

You don't state exactly what your interest is. Are you worried about becoming diabetic or do you know somone who is?


Does that help you at all?
 
Thank you IanS for such a detailed reply, I'm sorry, i should have been clearer in my interests. I'm a Masters degree student studying Innovation Design engineering, and for my final project my group partner Elena and I have been studying Diabetes as an area for innovation. Our output will be partially product based but we are keen to design with a system for implementation in mind also. We have been looking at three areas; home testing, continuous monitoring and provision for diabetics in developing countries. We are at the stage where we need to have a very strong understanding both of the technology available and the real problems and opinions of people living with diabetes. Once we exhibit our output, there may well be opportunities to take it forwards as a real beneficial product.

We chose this area after studying the future of health care in general and realizing that few other diseases effect so many, are increasing worldwide and have such an impact on way people live.

I read the recent post from the mother of the 16 year old, it seems from our research that diabetes can effect everyone of all ages and of course people respond in different ways, some negative, some very positive (a catalyst for a change for the better for example). This is partly what I consider makes this area potentially one that could benefit from good design innovation.

I hope that explains a little about what I'm asking questions about! :D
 
Anything for developing countries would be a real, honest to god miracle,

My ex was born in Haiti. If i was born there, I'd be dead.
Diabetes is a nuisance here, but in many countries, it's still a death sentence.
Insulin is too expensive to manufacture, store/ ship, blood testing kits are far too expensive to use,
they're simply told they'll die, and it's not a quick death either.

Home testing is od enough, although could always do with being cheaper, so much mony is spent on it.
CGM (Continuus Glucose Monitoring) Is a big field of research at the moment, as it could be a huge money maker, especially if you can combine it with a pump to create a closed loop system.
But there really is nothing going on in the third world type research.
That would really mean so much, any sort of help would literally save people's lives.

We're not dying, we're alive and mostly very healthy. In parts of africa / haiti... people die every day.
 
Thank you for your inspiring reply, we're aware that the challenge for designing for diabetics in developing countries is a huge one but an area where a massive difference could be made. We've got a few ideas in that area but we're keeping our options open right now. We may well find that an idea that could benefit people here may well be translatable for developing countries and vice-versa.

This project is quite a journey!
 
I can imagine...
There are so many things that you have to learn.

Can i ask, why diabetes? Do either of you have friends/family who are diabetic?
I'm just curious why you chose this in particular. :)
Please excuse the constant bad spelling, my keyboard got coffee in it and now I am using an old one, with very dodgy buttons lol.
 
Yes, there's a lot to learn! I've even had a go at pricking my finger and doing a blood test, stopped short of actually injecting myself with anything though.

We chose diabetes as it sort of suggested itself after we looked at our original topic "the future of healthcare". As well as it being a growing problem all over the world we thought that the lifestyle aspects as well as the medical made it a more relevant choice for designers to make a difference than, say, another condition that would require more technical medical innovation to make real progress. We're not medics by any stretch of the imagination, my background is mechanical engineering! I have no personal link with diabetes, which I think helps give me a more overall view. perhaps i'm wrong about that, but I think I would find it a lot harder to design for cancer for example, as I have close personal experiences with it.
 
Back
Top