Diabetes education to provide the necessary self-management skills.

Diabetes is a chronic health condition requiring patients to provide 95% of their own care. Having control over this condition and the self-care behaviours necessary for good diabetes self-management can be achieved with patient empowerment and effective diabetes education. The patient must perceive that they have this level of control to maintain good diabetes self-management, enabling prevention or delay of diabetic complications. Currently, there are 3.9 million people who have been diagnosed with diabetes in the UK, 90% of whom have Type 2 diabetes. However, there has also been a rise in prevalence of Type 1 diabetes in recent years - caused by autoimmune disease rather than lifestyle factors. The number of individuals now living with diabetes exerts a huge toll on the NHS and community healthcare resources, making it crucial that patients manage their condition as well as possible to reduce the human and healthcare costs of treating diabetes complications.