Fitbit and Diabetes UK have announced a new three-year partnership, aimed to educate people across the country on the importance of understanding their own health and how leading a healthier and more active lifestyle can play a critical role in the prevention of type 2 diabetes.
The organisations will collaborate on a series of initiatives throughout 2021 and the coming years to encourage healthy behaviour change, such as the One Million Step Challenge, to encourage participants to move more.
In the UK, more than 3.5 million people have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, which accounts for 90% of all diabetes diagnoses nationally, and the number is expected to rise.
To encourage those who are currently living with type 1 or type 2 diabetes or are at risk of developing type 2 diabetes to take action to build these types of healthy habits, the parnership will support the One Million Step Challenge which takes place in July. The challenge aims to encourage participants throughout the country to step-up their activity and take at least 10,000 steps a day to reach a one million step target at the end of the three-month challenge period.
Chris Askew OBE, Chief Executive at Diabetes UK, said: “We’re really pleased to announce the launch today of a new partnership between Diabetes UK and Fitbit. Diabetes is, and always has been, a very serious health condition; a fact which has only been highlighted further by COVID-19. We hope, together with Fitbit, that this partnership will help raise awareness of the seriousness of diabetes and will emphasise the importance of physical activity – both in reducing the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, and in good management of all types of diabetes.
“We believe Fitbit is the perfect partner to our programmes supporting people with, and at risk of type 2 diabetes, to be active and to live healthier lives. Together, we hope to affect real change in the fight against all types of diabetes and we are very much looking forward to getting started.”
To find out more about the partnership, or to Know Your Risk of type 2 diabetes visit diabetes.org.uk.
