Census Form

This form talks about health problems expected to last at least 12 months.

Are your day to day activities limited because of a health problem or disability which has lasted or is expected to last at least 12 months ?

a Yes, limited a lot
b Yes,limited a little
c No

I ticked b but what do others think ?

I personally would put yes to b I think, because you're not always going to be 'on the ball' when it comes to things like concentrating if your sugar levels are low.

Depends how you see your condition...

I would agree. Yes, limited a little.
We are certainly limited in terms of timing throughout the day.
I try to keep pretty consistent timings for meals. For me personally it helps me understand what is going on.

I'm not sure. I don't think that generally my life is limited at all by my diabetes. I eat when I want, more so since DAFNE and it's never stopped me doing anything I wanted to. I do agree though that hypos can affect things but doesn't really happen enough that I find it limiting.
Hmmm, food for thought!

I too don't see the condition as limiting, or in fact hypos as such either, as I can deal with them quickly and effectively 99% of the time.

However I would probably select B as it would mean I may be contributing to possible future services that might be help/accommodate diabetes and other conditions in day to day life..........what could these be,......who knows, but you never know........

I am surprised by some answers here. OK diabetes is not life-threatening (most of the time) but I do think it places limitations at times if only in some kind of restraint in food & drink.

How many people with diabetes can honestly say that their life has not been changed by it ? Not many I would think

its changed in the way I think about my health and obviously the physical act of maintaining blood sugar through testing and injecting, but the course of my life and the things I have done have not been affected by the condition.

It doesn't limit me to anything, but I suppose everyone is different, some people may insist on it affecting every decision an thing they do out of fear of complications, others may take a more relaxed attitude, and we know there are a few who don't really give a toss about it

I agree with novorapidboi, I like to think that I control my diabetes - not the other way round. DAFNE has been a great help in this. I do much the same things as other people of my age who don't have diabetes. I put 'No' to this on the census form.

Haven't had our form yet, so is this a single person question or a question to be answered in respect of every household member individually? The question doesn't ask if you have a long-term illness or disability, but whether day-to-day activities are limited by one. I'm not sure about the value of the question, presumeably the government gets its statistics about long-term illnesses and disabilites via the NHS - does the accompanying info give any idea about what the government sees as the value of its individual questions? Sorry, must stop trying to understand these things... I'll probably tick "c" when the time comes.

Stew

Day to day activities have to be affected because, as a diabetic, you are not free to do whatever you want. You need to take regular medication and you need to eat regularly. You cannot decide that you are going to go climb up a mountain and take nothing with you, because of your illness you have to take fuel and medication, so you must be affected.