Designing a natural experiment to evaluate a national health care-community partnership to prevent type 2 diabetes.
To address the growing incidence of type 2 diabetes in the United States, UnitedHealth Group, the YMCA of the USA, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have partnered to bring a group-based adaptation of the Diabetes Prevention Program lifestyle intervention to a national scale. Researchers at Northwestern and Indiana universities are collaborating with these partners to design a robust evaluation of the reach, effectiveness, and costs of this natural experiment. We will employ a quasi-experimental, cluster-randomized study design and combine administrative, clinical, and programmatic data from existing sources to derive reliable, timely, and policy-relevant estimates of the program's impact and potential for sustainability. In this context, evaluation results will provide information about the unique role of a health care-community partnership to prevent type 2 diabetes.
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, 750 N Lake Shore Dr, Chicago, IL 60611, USA. r.ackermann@northwestern.edu
Ronald T
RT
Ackermann
Ann M
AM
Holmes
Chandan
C
Saha
D002487:Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S.; D002648:Child; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D055812:Community-Based Participatory Research / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000628:therapy; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D006264:Health Benefit Plans, Employee / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005102:Health Expenditures; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007196:Indiana; D007348:Insurance, Health / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards; D008019:Life Style; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D015397:Program Evaluation; D018570:Risk Assessment; D014481:United States; D015431:Weight Loss