Diabetes is a serious chronic disease and affects 390,000 adults in West Virginia. In adults, type 2 diabetes mellitus [T2DM] accounts for about 90 to 95% of all cases of diabetes. The prevalence of T2DM in West Virginia is 11.8%, significantly higher than the national average of 8.3%. This ranks West Virginia fourth in prevalence among the 52 states and territories. In addition, 466,000 adult West Virginians have pre-diabetes. In order to advance the translation of knowledge into effective practice, preventing or delaying the early onset of diabetes and its complications is critical.
Healthy lifestyle is antecedent to effective prevention of the disease for those in the pre-diabetes stage. However, a statewide diabetes prevention program in this medically underserved state is currently lacking and therefore proposed in the current study. Assessing the feasibility and effectiveness of a national Diabetes Prevention Program can guide clinicians and public health professionals in prevention and management of diabetes. The projected increase in the incidence and prevalence of diabetes and the high economic burden associated with its treatment makes this study timely and significant.
Our long-term goal is to disseminate an evidence-based Diabetes Prevention and Management Program (DPM), a modified Diabetes Prevention Program’s national clinical trial that showed participation in a healthy lifestyle program can lower the risk of developing T2DM. The objective of this project is to pilot test the effectiveness and fidelity of the DPM in two communities of West Virginia:
Objective 1: To determine the effectiveness of the community lifestyle educational intervention program to promote behavior change related to diabetes prevention and management.
Objective 2: To explore participants’: 1) experiences of participating in the program, 2) perceptions and satisfaction with the program, and 3) barriers and motivators to behavior modifications.