Empowering South Asian Communities in the Fight Against Diabetes: From Evidence to Action

Blog Key Insights

✅Our umbrella review found that culturally tailored, community-based interventions are most effective for preventing and managing T2D in South Asian populations.

✅ In Surrey, BC, we’re bringing diabetes screening and education into trusted community spaces, with a focus on early detection, culturally adapted tools, and stigma reduction.

✅ Joy, our patient partner and a South Asian woman living with T2D, shares her lived experience in a powerful video that highlights the importance of culturally informed care.

✅ Our work is about more than healthcare — it's about inclusion, representation, and making diabetes support truly accessible.

Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2D) continues to rise at an alarming rate across the globe, but its impact is not evenly distributed. South Asian populations, including those from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, are among the most disproportionately affected, developing T2DM earlier, and often with more severe complications, than other ethnic groups.

The South Asian community has grown significantly in the last 25 years, according to Stats Canada - the majority of whom were immigrants.

Image: Stats Canada: South Asian Immigration to Canada

An Ontarian study examined how many of these South Asian immigrants had diabetes and found a rate of 15.9%; higher than the 11.6% prevalence in the non-immigrant population. The study also found that men had higher rates of diabetes than women in each South Asian group. Sociodemographic factors, such as income, education, English proficiency, and refugee status, were also associated with higher diabetes prevalence.

This elevated risk is shaped by a complex intersection of genetic predisposition, cultural dietary habits, socioeconomic stressors, and access barriers that demand not only clinical attention but also a deep understanding of the community context.

Why Focus on South Asian Communities?

Studying this population isn’t just about numbers, though the numbers are striking. In Canada alone, over 2 million people identify as South Asian, making up the largest racialized group in the country. In 2021, South Asians made up 7.1% of Canada's total population, representing over a quarter (26.7%) of the visible minority group.

British Columbia is home to nearly half a million individuals of South Asian descent, many of whom live in cities like Surrey, where cultural and religious institutions serve as anchors of community life. Despite these numbers, South Asian communities remain underrepresented in health research and underserved in preventive and diabetes care.

We believe that addressing diabetes disparities in this group is about more than improving clinical outcomes. It's about equity, representation, and inclusion. Culturally relevant approaches aren't just “nice to have”, they're essential to building trust and delivering care that makes sense in people’s daily lives. Focusing on this population allows us to spotlight solutions that are tailored, respectful, and sustainable.

What We Learned: Our Umbrella Review

To better understand what works in preventing and managing T2DM in South Asian populations, our team conducted an umbrella review, a rigorous synthesis of 21 existing systematic reviews, including 7 meta-analyses. This review, recently published in the Clinical Journal of Diabetes Care and Control (September 2024), highlights the critical role of culturally tailored, community-based interventions.

We found that interventions are far more effective when they align with people’s lived realities, whether that means incorporating traditional foods into dietary plans, respecting religious practices such as fasting during Ramadan, or providing materials in a person’s first language. The most impactful programs were those that combined practical lifestyle guidance with accessible self-management education and supportive technology, such as mobile health apps and reminder systems.

Importantly, the review emphasized the power of multidisciplinary, community-anchored care. Programs that engaged dietitians, pharmacists, nurses, family members, and community health workers were more likely to foster ongoing participation and behavior change. This evidence gave us the confidence to move from academic findings to real-world action, creating a bridge between research and community empowerment.

Bridging Research and Reality: Our Community-Based Initiative in Surrey, BC

Inspired by the findings of our umbrella review, we launched a project in Surrey, BC. Surrey is home to one of Canada’s largest South Asian communities; 37.8% of the Surrey population was South Asian (2021 census). This project, running from March to August 2025, is a collaboration between a local pharmacy, the Canada Indian Network Society (CINS), and several South Asian community organizations.

Our approach is simple but powerful: meet people where they are. We’ve brought diabetes screening directly into temples, gurdwaras, mosques, and community centres, trusted spaces where individuals feel comfortable and respected. Our mobile screening clinics aim to reach up to 300 people every two months, with a focus on early detection and rapid follow-up. Those identified as at risk are immediately linked to primary care, reducing the typical wait time and barriers that often prevent timely diagnosis.

But this initiative is more than a screening campaign. It’s a community-driven model of care. In collaboration with the Integrated Practice and Training Network (IPTN), we’re developing culturally adapted self-management tools, including visual guides, recipe cards, and bilingual digital resources, co-created with input from South Asian individuals living with diabetes. These materials are designed not only to inform but also to reflect the cultural values, family dynamics, and everyday challenges that people face.

We’ve also embedded a stigma-reduction strategy into this work. Too often, diabetes is perceived as a personal failure or something to hide, especially among older adults and women. By engaging patient partners and community influencers, we’re starting conversations that de-stigmatize the disease and encourage proactive care-seeking.

What we learnt from Joy, our patient partner, and her lived experience

Meet Joy, a vibrant voice in our community and a passionate patient partner. Joy is of South Asian descent and has been living with type 2 diabetes. In this video, she opens up about her personal journey, the challenges, the turning points, and the strength she’s found along the way. Through her story, we gain insight into the lived experience of managing diabetes and the power of culturally informed care. Let’s hear from Joy.

What This Means for Healthcare Providers and the Public

For healthcare providers, this work is a reminder that culturally informed care is more than translation. It’s about listening, collaborating, and designing interventions that are grounded in people’s lived experience. Providers must consider cultural norms, family roles, and socioeconomic realities when offering care plans. Small changes, such as integrating traditional foods into meal planning or using familiar metaphors to explain blood sugar, can have a profound impact on trust and engagement.

For the South Asian public, our message is this: diabetes is not a life sentence, and you are not alone. Early screening, culturally relevant information, and community-based support can dramatically reduce your risk and help you live well with diabetes. Our work is about making those tools truly accessible, not just available in clinics, but embedded in the fabric of community life.

Taking the Next Step

The burden of T2D in South Asian communities is significant, but so is our opportunity to respond with compassion, evidence, and creativity. Our project in Surrey is just one example of how research can move off the page and into action. It shows what’s possible when academic rigor meets grassroots collaboration.

We are also one of the few websites for T2D support that have a dedicated webpage focusing sorely on South Asian resources.

We’re committed to continuing this work, expanding partnerships, and sharing what we learn. We hope others, whether researchers, policymakers, practitioners, or community members, will join us in reimagining what diabetes care can look like: inclusive, personalized, and rooted in equity.

This isn’t just about fighting a disease, it’s about affirming the right to good health for all.

Join us