Information Campaign
"DIABETES HUNTERS"
for the Ukrainian-Swiss project "Act for Health"
SITUATION
In Ukraine, more than 1.2 million people have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Another 2.5 million Ukrainians are unaware of their disease.
62%
of Ukrainians do not know any symptoms of type 2 diabetes. *
44%
of respondents do not know about ways to prevent it. *
27,4%
of Ukrainians have never measured their blood glucose level. **
*Results of the KAPB study, 2021
** Results of the STEPS study, 2020
TARGET AUDIENCES
People who are at risk
Doctors (family doctors, nurses, endocrinologists)
Our target audience consisted of people who are at risk but know nothing about type 2 diabetes, and family doctors, who most often diagnose this disease in patients and prescribe the correct treatment.
CAMPAIGN GOALS
Increase people's awareness of type 2 diabetes and its risk factors.
Motivate them to check their blood glucose levels and lead a healthy lifestyle.
We created an information campaign "Diabetes Hunters," aimed at informing people about the risk factors and prevention of type 2 diabetes and motivating them to check their blood glucose levels
STRATEGY AND
IMPLEMENTATION
When it comes to their own health, people trust doctors the most. Therefore, we decided to form and support a medical community that is concerned about the issue and ready to work proactively to prevent complications of diabetes through screening and educational efforts.
Forming teams of “Diabetes Hunters”
We facilitated the creation of special teams led by family doctors and nurses who actively communicated with patients, colleagues, and the public about the prevention and control of type 2 diabetes, and primarily about the necessity for everyone, especially people in risk groups, to check their blood sugar levels.
The key message came out of this –
CHECK YOUR BLOOD SUGAR.

We selected 7 family doctors to become leaders of the Diabetes Hunters teams in 5 pilot regions of the project - Rivne, Lviv, Poltava, Dnipro, and Kherson oblasts.
THEIR TASK WAS TO:
Form their own teams and involve other family doctors, nurses, patients with diabetes, and their relatives;
Raise the topic of diabetes in the media space and communicate with the media;
Maintain a blog on their social networks and share the results of the project;
Organize screening campaigns in their region, check patients' blood glucose levels, and provide useful lifestyle change recommendations.
Presentation of the campaign in the target regions
To present the campaign and the "Diabetes Hunters" team in each region, we decided to hold a series of events dedicated to the prevention and early diagnosis of diabetes. To attract the attention of the media, the medical community, and stakeholders, we conducted blood glucose level testing for journalists and residents of the regional center.

On the night of February 24, 2022, our team went to Kherson to do the same. But a full-scale war began in Ukraine.

The war forced the team to reformat their work and focus on helping those who need it most. We went to the regions to check the blood sugar levels of internally displaced persons. This marked the beginning of further screening campaigns, which our "hunters" conducted independently in IDP centers, enterprises, and more.

In a few months of work, the project team tested 1,366 people, of whom 10-12% had elevated blood sugar levels. As expected, these people very rarely or never checked it.
Together with international partners from the Diabetes Disaster Response Coalition, we translated into Ukrainian a guide on insulin substitution in emergencies, which family doctors could use without fear of substituting or prescribing new medications to their patients.

Family doctors needed community support and practical knowledge. This led to the creation of training sessions for family doctors, which the team conducted in Rivne, Lviv, and Poltava. These sessions brought together about 350 doctors into a community that encouraged other doctors to hunt for diabetes alongside our "hunters."
Information materials
Information materials helped us in this effort – posters for medical institutions and leaflets for family doctors containing useful information and recommendations for people at risk. Additionally, a radio spot in which we urged people to care for their health during the war and check their blood sugar levels.
Educational Videos
Together with the team leaders, we created 8 videos that addressed various topics related to diabetes and promoted them on the project's YouTube and Facebook pages.
Online test for individual risk of type 2 diabetes
Together with project partners – the Public Health Center, we created Ukraine's first evidence-based online test, that allows individuals to determine their own or their relatives' risks of developing type 2 diabetes. It is based on the clinical protocol for primary and secondary medical care approved by the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, and thus can be used by family doctors in medical practice.
Website about diabetes
We could have made a beautiful landing page for the campaign, but we decided to develop the first Ukrainian-language resource, that contains up-to-date information about diabetes, nutritional recommendations, and practical advice for family doctors. Now this platform continues its life as part of the website of the Public Health Center of Ukraine.
Online course for doctors
To help family doctors and nurses refresh their knowledge about type 2 diabetes and engage them in proactive "hunting" for the disease, we created a highly practical online course featuring the most common cases from family doctors' practice. The training will be available on the educational platform of the Public Health Center of Ukraine.
RESULTS
Website:  67 281 views
Online test:  55 530 people took the test
Youtube:  880 696 views
Radio spot:  976 000 reach
Facebook:  3 386 865 reach
58 011 interactions
Media:  177+ publications 3 459 048 reach
Engagement of the medical community:  
346 medical professionals
Number of participants in screening programs:  1366 people
8 000 000 total reach