The increasing burden of type 2 diabetes and other non-communicable diseases has been devastating across the globe, especially in low and middle-income countries. India has seen a rapid increase in diabetes – about 77 million Indians are currently diagnosed with diabetes and many more individuals are undiagnosed or pre-diabetic. Prevention is a smarter, more feasible, and cost-effective solution.

The Healthy Schools – Diabetes Awareness and Prevention Education program is an engaging curriculum focused on diabetes prevention at a young age. Through the Healthy Schools program and Global Health Seed Grant, the Stanford Center for Asian Health Research and Education (CARE) and Arogya World, a U.S.-based nonprofit based on disease prevention in India, will assess the data from 200 school sites to further evaluate the effectiveness and scale the impact of the program. 

“The Stanford Center for Asian Health Research and Education (CARE) and Arogya World teams are excited to collaborate on the Healthy Schools program to improve diabetes-related health outcomes for school children across India,” said co-PI Latha Palaniappan. “We look forward to continuing to make a positive impact on the field of global health and diabetes-related health outcomes through this collaboration!”

Principal investigator: S.V. Mahadevan, MD, Professor – University Medical Line, Emergency Medicine

Co-PIs: Latha Palaniappan, MD, MS, Professor – University Medical Line, Cardiovascular Medicine | Nalini Saligram, PhD, Founder & CEO, Arogya World

Funders: Stanford Center for Innovation in Global Health

Photo credit: Images of Empowerment, Paula Bronstein