Roche's ScreenHer seeks to improve women’s access to diabetes care in Pakistan

Roche Diabetes Care Pakistan and social enterprise Greenstar Social Marketing are have announced a significant milestone for the ScreenHer initiative, which enables women in the rural and peri-urban areas to access diabetes risk assessment, education, and testing that would otherwise be difficult to obtain. Across 70 clinics in six major cities, nearly 20,000 screenings have been conducted.

Pakistan is reported to be among the top three countries with the highest age-adjusted prevalence of diabetes in the world as of 2021. In Pakistan, 1 in 4 or approximately 33 million adults have this life-threatening chronic condition. More importantly, the majority of the diabetes population are undiagnosed and 400,000 people have lost their lives to diabetes complications in 2021 alone. Women in particular, are more vulnerable due to various socioeconomic reasons that limit their knowledge and access to healthcare services. More than half of women in APAC have little to no knowledge of diagnostic methods, resulting in lower engagement and eventually lower screening rates.

The ScreenHer initiative is a partnership between Roche and Greenstar that combines a wide-reaching network for Greenstar clinics and Roche's knowledge and expertise to reach more than one million women over a period of three years.

Under ScreenHer, clinics or diabetes wellbeing centres provide end-to-end screening, diagnosis, and diabetes management for women living in the rural and peri-urban areas of Pakistan. Roche also supports the training of Greenstar employees at their clinics in relation to diabetes management, contributing to efforts to build a skilled healthcare workforce that serves the community.