The number of people diagnosed with type-2 diabetes each year is growing in Denmark, like much of the world. But one district tells a different story. In Tingbjerg, part of Copenhagen, the number of new diagnoses is falling – and it coincides with a major intervention led by Steno Diabetes Center Copenhagen (SDCC).
Tingbjerg is one of the poorest parts of Denmark’s capital city. Its residents have less disposable income than in any other Copenhagen district and a staggering 95.8% of housing is social housing (state-subsidised and rent-controlled), compared to 19.3% across the city as a whole.
Aware of the close link between poverty and type-2 diabetes, SDCC kickstarted a series of research-based health promotion initiatives in Tingbjerg in 2015. Over the last decade, SDCC has worked together with the municipality of Copenhagen, social housing associations, local organisations and residents themselves – and the results are striking.
Before 2015, the number of people being diagnosed with type-2 diabetes each year was almost twice as high in Tingbjerg as in the rest of Denmark. Over the last decade, as the rate has continued to rise in Denmark, it has fallen in Tingbjerg and is now at the same level there as the rest of the country.
“The figures cannot tell us if there is a direct correlation, but we believe that our efforts have had an effect,” says Paul Bloch, research leader at SDCC.
Inspiration at home and abroad
The initiatives include a health network for residents with chronic illnesses and their relatives, organised Nordic walking (walking with poles to provide a full-body workout) and a community garden with bike workshop, apple orchard, allotments, chickens, bee hives, and a restaurant and café. There is also a scheme for early detection of type-2 diabetes and prediabetes, a diabetes nurse, and help and support for health appointments.
“The Tingbjerg initiative was established on the understanding that diabetes is a complex disease that requires a focus on both the individual’s health and on social conditions, which play a very large role in both disease development and prevention,” says Magnus T. Jensen, Director of SDCC. “It can also provide inspiration internationally, where diabetes and other chronic diseases pose enormous challenges.”
The success so far is attracting regional, national and international interest. In 2025, Tingbjerg has seen visits from representatives of the Danish state who are working on a new national public health law and from British Minister of State Karin Smyth, seeking inspiration for how to improve health in residential areas with socially vulnerable populations in the UK.
SDCC is also working to ensure that the experiences and learning from Tingbjerg are replicated across the Danish social housing sector.
Further information
Novo Nordisk Foundation, Judith Vonberg, Communications Manager, +454172 7925, jvo@novo.dk
Photo: Lizette Kabré/SDCC