Online diabetes prevention programs as good as face-to-face programs

An intensive and multifaceted online diabetes prevention program is as effective as face-to-face programs and has the potential to expand reach to those at risk of developing diabetes, researchers report.

Writing in background information to their paper, Tannaz Moin, MD, an endocrinologist at the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System and the Veterans Affairs’ Health Services Research and Development Center for the Study of Healthcare Innovation, Implementation, and Policy, and her associates, said intensive lifestyle interventions such as diabetes prevention programs (DPP) could lower the risk of incident diabetes by 58%, but a lack of reach significantly attenuated their population impact in real-world settings.

“Building evidence for online DPP is important because of its potential for increasing reach because most U.S. adults (87%) use the Internet,” they wrote in their paper, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

They therefore set out to compare weight loss results from 114 veterans taking part in the Veterans Administration’s face-to-face standard-of-care weight management program MOVE! with an online program involving 268 obese or overweight veterans with prediabetes and 273 people taking part in an in-person program.

MOVE! included 8-12 face-to-face healthy-lifestyle sessions and monthly maintenance sessions but with no specified goals. The online program involved virtual groups of participants: live e-coaches who monitored group interactions and provided the participants with feedback via phone and private online messages; weekly educational modules on healthy eating and exercise; and wireless scales to record participant weights.

The in-person program consisted of 8-22 group-based face-to-face sessions focused on 7% weight loss and at least 150 minutes per session of moderate physical activity.

Weight loss, considered by the authors to be a significant predictor of diabetes risk reduction, was recorded at 6 months and then again at 12 months in all three interventions.

An analysis of 242 participants enrolled in the intensive, multifaceted online DPP intervention (26 were excluded because they did not have more than two available weights) revealed a significant weight change of –4.7 kg at 6 months and –4 kg at 12 months’ follow-up.  On average, these participants lost 3.7% of their baseline weight at 12 months.

At both times weight change (kg and percentage) was not significantly different between the online intervention and those taking part in the in-person DPP (–4.8 and –4.1 kg for online vs –4 kg and –3.9 kg in-person for those completing more than one module/session). Both groups also had higher weight loss (percentage and kg) at 6 and 12 months compared with MOVE! participants (–1.1kg and 0.10 kg).

The research team noted that the online program had better participation than did the in-person program, with 87% of online participants completing eight or more sessions, compared with 59% for the in-person program and 55% for MOVE!

They suggested this was because the online program had several user-friendly features that increased the frequency of potential “touches” participants received over time.

“Future studies examining how inline DPP intervention components can work together to impact participation and engagement are key,” they said.

“This is one of the first studies to report weight outcomes irrespective of the level of engagement with an online DPP intervention and to examine outcomes compared with in person DPP. Overall, these findings may have important implications for national efforts to disseminate DPP,” they concluded.

The authors conceded that the generalizability of their study was limited as it included veterans receiving care in the VHA. 
 

SOURCE: Am J Prev Med. 2018 Sep 24. doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2018.06.028

An intensive and multifaceted online diabetes prevention program is as effective as face-to-face programs and has the potential to expand reach to those at risk of developing diabetes, researchers report.

Writing in background information to their paper, Tannaz Moin, MD, an endocrinologist at the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System and the Veterans Affairs’ Health Services Research and Development Center for the Study of Healthcare Innovation, Implementation, and Policy, and her associates, said intensive lifestyle interventions such as diabetes prevention programs (DPP) could lower the risk of incident diabetes by 58%, but a lack of reach significantly attenuated their population impact in real-world settings.

“Building evidence for online DPP is important because of its potential for increasing reach because most U.S. adults (87%) use the Internet,” they wrote in their paper, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

They therefore set out to compare weight loss results from 114 veterans taking part in the Veterans Administration’s face-to-face standard-of-care weight management program MOVE! with an online program involving 268 obese or overweight veterans with prediabetes and 273 people taking part in an in-person program.

MOVE! included 8-12 face-to-face healthy-lifestyle sessions and monthly maintenance sessions but with no specified goals. The online program involved virtual groups of participants: live e-coaches who monitored group interactions and provided the participants with feedback via phone and private online messages; weekly educational modules on healthy eating and exercise; and wireless scales to record participant weights.

The in-person program consisted of 8-22 group-based face-to-face sessions focused on 7% weight loss and at least 150 minutes per session of moderate physical activity.

Weight loss, considered by the authors to be a significant predictor of diabetes risk reduction, was recorded at 6 months and then again at 12 months in all three interventions.

An analysis of 242 participants enrolled in the intensive, multifaceted online DPP intervention (26 were excluded because they did not have more than two available weights) revealed a significant weight change of –4.7 kg at 6 months and –4 kg at 12 months’ follow-up.  On average, these participants lost 3.7% of their baseline weight at 12 months.

At both times weight change (kg and percentage) was not significantly different between the online intervention and those taking part in the in-person DPP (–4.8 and –4.1 kg for online vs –4 kg and –3.9 kg in-person for those completing more than one module/session). Both groups also had higher weight loss (percentage and kg) at 6 and 12 months compared with MOVE! participants (–1.1kg and 0.10 kg).

The research team noted that the online program had better participation than did the in-person program, with 87% of online participants completing eight or more sessions, compared with 59% for the in-person program and 55% for MOVE!

They suggested this was because the online program had several user-friendly features that increased the frequency of potential “touches” participants received over time.

“Future studies examining how inline DPP intervention components can work together to impact participation and engagement are key,” they said.

“This is one of the first studies to report weight outcomes irrespective of the level of engagement with an online DPP intervention and to examine outcomes compared with in person DPP. Overall, these findings may have important implications for national efforts to disseminate DPP,” they concluded.

The authors conceded that the generalizability of their study was limited as it included veterans receiving care in the VHA. 
 

SOURCE: Am J Prev Med. 2018 Sep 24. doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2018.06.028

An intensive and multifaceted online diabetes prevention program is as effective as face-to-face programs and has the potential to expand reach to those at risk of developing diabetes, researchers report.

Writing in background information to their paper, Tannaz Moin, MD, an endocrinologist at the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System and the Veterans Affairs’ Health Services Research and Development Center for the Study of Healthcare Innovation, Implementation, and Policy, and her associates, said intensive lifestyle interventions such as diabetes prevention programs (DPP) could lower the risk of incident diabetes by 58%, but a lack of reach significantly attenuated their population impact in real-world settings.

“Building evidence for online DPP is important because of its potential for increasing reach because most U.S. adults (87%) use the Internet,” they wrote in their paper, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

They therefore set out to compare weight loss results from 114 veterans taking part in the Veterans Administration’s face-to-face standard-of-care weight management program MOVE! with an online program involving 268 obese or overweight veterans with prediabetes and 273 people taking part in an in-person program.

MOVE! included 8-12 face-to-face healthy-lifestyle sessions and monthly maintenance sessions but with no specified goals. The online program involved virtual groups of participants: live e-coaches who monitored group interactions and provided the participants with feedback via phone and private online messages; weekly educational modules on healthy eating and exercise; and wireless scales to record participant weights.

The in-person program consisted of 8-22 group-based face-to-face sessions focused on 7% weight loss and at least 150 minutes per session of moderate physical activity.

Weight loss, considered by the authors to be a significant predictor of diabetes risk reduction, was recorded at 6 months and then again at 12 months in all three interventions.

An analysis of 242 participants enrolled in the intensive, multifaceted online DPP intervention (26 were excluded because they did not have more than two available weights) revealed a significant weight change of –4.7 kg at 6 months and –4 kg at 12 months’ follow-up.  On average, these participants lost 3.7% of their baseline weight at 12 months.

At both times weight change (kg and percentage) was not significantly different between the online intervention and those taking part in the in-person DPP (–4.8 and –4.1 kg for online vs –4 kg and –3.9 kg in-person for those completing more than one module/session). Both groups also had higher weight loss (percentage and kg) at 6 and 12 months compared with MOVE! participants (–1.1kg and 0.10 kg).

The research team noted that the online program had better participation than did the in-person program, with 87% of online participants completing eight or more sessions, compared with 59% for the in-person program and 55% for MOVE!

They suggested this was because the online program had several user-friendly features that increased the frequency of potential “touches” participants received over time.

“Future studies examining how inline DPP intervention components can work together to impact participation and engagement are key,” they said.

“This is one of the first studies to report weight outcomes irrespective of the level of engagement with an online DPP intervention and to examine outcomes compared with in person DPP. Overall, these findings may have important implications for national efforts to disseminate DPP,” they concluded.

The authors conceded that the generalizability of their study was limited as it included veterans receiving care in the VHA. 
 

SOURCE: Am J Prev Med. 2018 Sep 24. doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2018.06.028