"Diabrisk-SL" is a collaborative translational study conducted by the DASL and the Unit for Metabolic Medicine, Cardiovascular Division, King’s College London, UK. The study is funded by the International Diabetes Federation BRIDGES project supported by an educational grant from Lilly Diabetes.

The study was designed with an objective of identifying young persons (5-40 years) at high risk of developing diabetes and cardio- renal disease in a young urban population in Sri Lanka and to modify such risk through low cost non-pharmacological life style modification (LSM). It is a 3 year prospective randomized population based controlled clinical trial ending 30th June 2011.

23,298 normal subjects between the age of 5-40 years representative of the general population of Colombo District were screened to identify the prevalence of 4 risk factors i.e. increased BMI, increased waist, first degree family history and reduced exercise by a simple questionnaire and anthropometry.

23% of the subjects were found to have 2 or more risk factors with 4,683 volunteering their participation for 3 years. This group was randomised into an intensive (study group – 3 monthly review on LSM) vs. non-intensive (control group – annual reviews on LSM) groups where the same biochemical and LSM advice was delivered and followed up for 2 years.

The aim of this study is to compare the development of primary and secondary cardio-metabolic end-points between the two interventional groups. If this study is found to be successful, the low cost LSM can be used effectively as a preventive tool nationally. It is hoped that this study will be extended for a further period of 3 years to obtain more conclusive evidence.