Description
I recently wrote an article in The Guardian reflecting on what we have learned in the fifty years since the first ever national diabetes survey was carried out, in the small island nation of Nauru. I believe great research can improve community wellbeing, so it is humbling to admit to the people of Nauru, who have participated in a lot of health research and surveys over the past decades (including my own), that we have so little to show for it. Type 2 diabetes is a global population health phenomenon that both drives, and is driven by, major societal transformations. Since it was first identified at “epidemic” levels in the 1970s, researchers have attributed type 2 diabetes to people eating too many calories and doing too little physical activity. Interventions based on this trope have led to little improvement. It is hard to see a case for continuing to focus on calorie-consuming individuals as the cause and cure for type 2 diabetes. Approaching diabetes as an outcome of the purposeful behaviour of societies, of our relationships with our ecosystems and with each other, offers a different way in. In writing the article, I built on my past research at the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography, University of Oxford (funded by a General Sir John Monash Foundation Scholarship and Clarendon Scholarship) and the ANU School of Cybernetics, and drew inspiration from Bruce Pascoe, Gregory Bateson and Mary Catherine Bateson (among others), to try to make sense of why we have seen so little improvement in type 2 diabetes prevalence, and what else we might try. I also benefited from valuable questions, critiques and inputs from Stanley Ulijaszek, Andrew Meares, and The Guardian team. The article features in The Guardian's "A Common Condition" series, which draws attention to the immediate and long term dangers that non-communicable diseases – including heart and respiratory diseases, cancers, and diabetes – pose to individuals living in the developing world. Read the full article on The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/mar/25/diabetes-policy-diet-exercise-pacific-island-nauru-acc| Period | 25 Mar 2024 → … |
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| Event title | Guardian article: 'If a diabetes policy of diet and exercise keeps failing, is it time for a new approach?' |
| Event type | Other |