In India, 60 million people live with diabetes, and 1 million die from it each year. Clinical proof shows that diabetes can be prevented with more physical activity and healthier eating. mDiabetes, a 2011 Clinton Global Initiative Commitment implemented by Arogya World with Nokia, sent free diabetes prevention text messages to 1 million Indians in 12 languages. Shown to be effective, we are scalabling this mHealth program to make an impact on the next million in India.
India is home to 60 million people with diabetes, a figure that is expected to reach 87 million by 2030. The WHO says that diabetes, heart disease and stroke will cost $237 billion in lost income for India from 2005 to 2015. The International Diabetes Federation states that a low-income Indian family with an adult living with diabetes can spend up to 25% of their income on diabetes care. On average, Indians get diabetes 10 years earlier than Western people. This is a health and economic issue.
With compelling text messages delivered twice a week, mDiabetes has helped Indians appreciate the seriousness of diabetes, learn that it can be prevented and take steps to make simple lifestyle changes that will protect them. Feedback has been positive: more than 90% said they found it valuable, and 85% said they would share the messages with friends. We've reached 1 million people in India with this important program. With your help, we can reach 1 million more.
Our goal is to educate 1 million more people in India, reaching them each 50 times. We hope to encourage behavioral change. Increased physical activity and healthier eating are cost-effective tactics proven to prevent diabetes. We believe that since mDiabetes is scalable, it will be the basis of a chronic disease prevention model for the developing world, and a high-impact solution in the fight against similar non-communicable diseases.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).