A Follow-up of Twenty-Eight Patients Found to Be Diabetic During the 1948 and 1949 Annual Diabetic Detection Campaigns
Abstract
Each passing year brings evidence of the increasing magnitude of diabetes as a public health problem in America. Diabetes mellitus is a disease of particular interest to social workers, because it seriously affects the patient's whole way of living. Although no deforming defects result routinely, as in many bone and skin conditions, still normal social intercourse is frequently disturbed; the patient realizes that the disease is chronic and incurable and experiences a sense of futility or aloofness. In the treatment of diabetes, exercise, food and hours for meals must be planned, routine must be rigidly observed, and the patient must be educated to an awareness of his own condition and the consequent responsibility of keeping in close contact with his doctor. Prior to the discovery of insulin by Banting and Best in 1921, the treatment of diabetes was by diet alone. Since that time, medical science has developed different types of insulin, some of which are quick acting with a short term of effectiveness; others, slower in action, but of a longer duration. Insulin and the diet of the patient are expensive; however, today one-third of all diabetics can be controlled adequately on dietary measures alone.
Subject Area
Social work|Social research|Social studies education|Public health
Recommended Citation
Sister Mary Antonia, "A Follow-up of Twenty-Eight Patients Found to Be Diabetic During the 1948 and 1949 Annual Diabetic Detection Campaigns" (1950). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI30725007.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI30725007
