Scientists of the German Institute of Human Nutrition (DIfE) are calling on all adults to participate in the Citizen Science project DIRIKO¹. The objective of the project is to improve communication regarding diabetes risk in the DIfE – GERMAN DIABETES RISK TEST^® and thus to better prevent diabetes in the population. DIfE is a partner of the German Center for Diabetes Research and has developed the German Diabetes Risk Test (drs.dife.de), which is available free of charge on the Internet and is based on the data of the large-scale Potsdam population study².

With the help of the diabetes risk test, every adult can quickly and easily determine how high his or her personal risk is of developing type 2 diabetes within the next five years. The test is available both as an online and a print questionnaire. Additionally, the online questionnaire ends with individualized recommendations on how to reduce the risk of developing diabetes.

Learning from the population
Scientific research has shown that communication of health risks has a strong impact on how people assess their personal disease risk. This in turn can have an influence on how people implement the given precautionary recommendations. But what is the best way to communicate risk? “In order to answer this question and to improve our diabetes risk test further, we urgently need the help and the feedback of the population," said Catarina Schiborn, who is responsible for coordinating the Citizen Science project. “We want to learn from the population and hope that 12,000 non-diabetic adults will actively participate in the research project. If we better understand the needs of the population and take them into account in our diabetes risk test, we can further improve diabetes prevention in our society."

What can be done?
“Our web-based Citizen Science project DIRIKO is a first step in this direction. With the help of the population, we want to identify the most appropriate form of communication among different communication forms. The time required to participate in the project is about 15 minutes. The effort for each participant is thus relatively minor and could nevertheless make a significant contribution to optimizing the diabetes risk test," said Kristin Mühlenbruch. “Adults who are interested in our research project and want to participate can take part in the online survey starting on World Diabetes Day on November 14, 2017 via the link diriko. dife. de ", said Mühlenbruch, who as an epidemiologist has already contributed much to the development of the diabetes risk test so far.
All participants in the survey remain anonymous. In addition, in accordance with the data protection guidelines, the scientists treat all non-personal data with strict confidentiality, for example those relating to the Internet provider used.

Prevent diabetes
In Germany, an estimated six million people are affected by diabetes. Out of 100 people with diabetes, about 90 to 95 suffer from type 2 diabetes, which is also known in the general population as age-related diabetes. Due to the change in lifestyle and dietary habits as well as the high number of overweight people, this disease affects not only the elderly but also increasingly the younger generation. Type 2 diabetes is associated with an increased risk of serious complications. These include heart attack, stroke, blindness and kidney failure. “The good thing about it is that every individual can do a lot to help prevent the disease through a healthy lifestyle," said Matthias Schulze, head of the Department of Molecular Epidemiology at DIfE. ”Improving diabetes prevention should therefore be an important goal for everyone in our society. Please support our project!"

¹DIRIKO – Study on Diabetes Risk Communication with the DIfE – GERMAN DIABETES RISK TEST®
²The long-term study is the Potsdam EPIC Study. EPIC stands for European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition. The EPIC study is a prospective study that investigates the relationship between diet, cancer and other chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes. The EPIC study involves 23 administrative centers in ten European countries with a total of 519,000 adult study participants. The Potsdam EPIC study is a part of the EPIC study with more than 27,000 participants.