The risk of diabetes is significantly higher among people with limited economic resources. Lifestyle interventions that focus on healthful eating and physical activity can often prevent prediabetes from progressing to type 2 diabetes and its complications.
The Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) is a year-long lifestyle intervention with proven success. It is typically offered onsite in small-group settings. However, people with limited economic resources often face barriers to onsite engagement in the DPP. Examples of barriers include irregular work schedules, or limited access to transportation, childcare, quality healthcare, affordable healthful foods, or safe places to be physically active.
Offering a virtual version of the DPP (v-DPP) to people who face barriers to the onsite DPP could improve program participation, engagement, and outcomes. Combining the v-DPP with personally tailored guidance and care coordination from community health workers (CHWs) could help address many barriers to successful participation in the DPP.
The goal of this project is to assess the feasibility of and pathways for implementation of a virtually-delivered DPP (v-DPP) supported by community-based care coordination involving CHWs. Ultimately, we hope to demonstrate improvements in diet quality, physical activity levels, blood sugar, body weight status, and blood pressure among our population of focus, thereby reducing their risk for type 2 diabetes.