Pro-Change has received a two-year contract from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to develop and pilot a personalized, two-way text messaging program to combat the impact of the growing diabetes epidemic. The bilingual program will be offered in both English and Spanish and is designed to increase engagement in the CDC’s Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP). More than 88 million Americans (34.5%) have prediabetes and over 80% of them are not aware that they do.
Combining technology, behavior change theory, and participatory design approaches, Pro-Change will develop, deploy, and evaluate a text-message delivered, tailored behavior change program designed to:
- Increase readiness to engage in key diabetes prevention behaviors among persons living with prediabetes or those at high risk for developing type 2 diabetes;
- Address unmet social needs by boosting engagement in community health services;
- Increase individuals readiness to enroll in the DPP; and
- Expand enrollment in the DPP
In collaboration with a diverse array of community stakeholders, health care providers, and end users, Pro-Change will conduct a statewide pilot study in Rhode Island in 2022.
“This population-based text messaging program has the potential to provide a scalable solution for enhancing health and well-being, identifying risk of prediabetes, and increasing readiness to enroll in the evidence-based DPP,” said Dr. Sara S. Johnson, Co-President and Co-CEO of Pro-Change and the study’s principal investigator. “This work will also reduce barriers to engagement by assessing and providing localized resources to address and reduce unmet social needs. Given the extensive end-user and community stakeholder input we will obtain, this research could also provide critical insights to inform other engagement solutions. We are grateful to the CDC for supporting this work.”
This project is supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) (Contract # 75D30121C11279). The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement by, CDC/HHS or the U.S. Government.
In Other News…
Pro-Change recently deployed TakeControl, a free, personalized, two-way text messaging program for people with asthma. It is designed to assist users in working with their health care providers to ensure that they can live their lives as if they don’t have asthma. Please feel free to share it with individuals with asthma who may be interested.
Users can check it out by texting CONTROL to 401-234-0883.