How many people live with diabetes in Denmark? What is the distribution across geography? And how many have an average blood sugar level ≤ 53 or retinopathy? For the first time, it is now possible to get a full picture of diabetes in Denmark in just one place. The Danish Diabetes Association has just launched the brand new data tool Diabetestal.nu (DiabetesNumbers.now). Collecting aggregated data from eight Danish registers, Diabetestal enables people to learn more about the disease, politicians to make informed healthcare decisions, and researchers to get an overview and inspiration for the next research project.

Up until now, it has not been possible to get a complete overview of the status of diabetes in Denmark, nor to make connections or compare developments in several indicators for several populations defined by one characteristic filter, .e.g sex, duration of diabetes or medical treatment. The Diabetes Association hopes to fill out this gap with their new website Diabetestal.nu

- We want to make it easy to find the numbers you need. What is important about the new data tool is that you can see and connect everything, be it the municipal level or laboratory results – but without being dependent on anyone to report data, says Tanja Thybo, Head of Research at the Diabetes Association.

Furthermore, Diabetestal is updated every quarter which makes it possible to quickly spot new trends and potential problems that need addressing.

Find Inspiration for Your Next Research Project

Diabetestal.nu provides insights into what might be interesting to research further.

- Diabetestal provides numbers and facts and can be used for observations on developments. However, it does not tell is why the numbers are as they are. We need talented researchers to look into that part, says Tanja Thybo.

Through the advanced search function, researchers can filter on groups, periods, etc. It is also possible to download the numbers to excel and thereby continue to work with them on your own.

- We also know that it is an integral part of many research positions to teach. Diabetestal.nu is also useful educational tool. You can easily visualise your material through graphs from Diabetestal.nu for your presentations, says Tanja Thybo.

Improve Quality of Treatment

The tool shows that at least 356,000 Danes live with diabetes across diabetes type compared to 265,000 in 2015, a number that is only expected to rise. Due to its high prevalence, the Danish Diabetes Association classifies diabetes as a common disease. On the landing page, people with an interest but without specialist medical knowledge are able to learn more about the status of diabetes in Denmark.

Diabetestal.nu provides easy access to information on indicators for the quality of the treatment of diabetes in Denmark across e.g. regions and municipality.

- Regions and municipalities can compare themselves with each other. Hopefully, this will strengthen the quality of the treatment, says Tanja Thybo, who also hopes that politicians will use it.

It is a Strength to Know Your Weaknesses

Diabetestal does not have access to data collected in General Practice from neither the Danish Diabetes Database (DDiD) by the Regions' clinical quality development program (RKKP) nor data from Quality in General Practice (KiAP). This means that you cannot distinguish between people with diabetes type 2 who attend the GP or the hospitals.

Diabetestal also does not contain data on other types of diabetes type 1 and 2, as the database uses ISD codes to identify the population.

Furthermore, the database only goes back to 2015. Otherwise, the website gets too heavy to run.

Diabetestal is developed by the Danish Diabetes Association in cooperation with IQVIA, and with sponsorship from Novo Nordisk Denmark A/S, Boehringer Ingelheim Danmark A/S, Bayer A/S, Sanofi A/S, and AstraZeneca Danmark.