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Serbia: raising awareness of diabetes and providing peer support online

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Published on Wednesday, 16 October 2013 10:30

Using online technologies and social media to raise awareness of diabetes and providing peer support to people living with diabetes holds no secret for the Serbian Diabetes Association and Blue Circle.

Amongst the many initiatives developped by these associations using online platform and social media is the Facebook-based questionnaire "10 questions and answers about diabetes". Developped by Blue Circle with the support of the Municipality of Palilula in Belgrade, the online questionnaire raises awareness of diabetes by asking and answering simple questions: what is diabetes? what are the symptoms? or what are the types of diabetes?

Building up on the success of this questionnaire, Blue Circle aims to launch an online risk test for type 2 diabetes.

Providing peer support through online resources is another priority of Blue Circle. With this in mind the association will work in the coming months on a publication called "My Sweet Life Companion" aimed as a resource for young people living with diabetes. The publication will be made available for download and as a flip-page e-book online, and will gather educational information and personal stories from young people with diabetes covering a wide range of topics such as health diet, diabetes and sports and how to deal with and fight discrimination.

My Sweet Life Companion will be published via the publishing platform ISSUU, making download, comments and sharing possible for all.

Another valuable source of information comes from the Serbian Diabetes Association's website, diabeta.net, and is called "My Pocket Pancreas". Written by Stela Prgomelja, is it a must-have book that covers everything there is to know about living with type 1 diabetes: counting carbs, how to correct the dose of your insulin in relation to nutrition and physical activity, along with practical tips for many daily-life situations. It is intended to insulin pump users, and people who take insulin several times a day. The booklet is available for download and as an e-book here.

For more information on the many activities from the Serbian Diabetes Association and Blue Circle, contact Tijana Milanovic at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.