What are we trying to do?
We are testing a culturally tailored diabetes self-management education and support programme called Healthy Eating & Active Lifestyles for Diabetes (HEAL-D).

 

This programme, which can be delivered either in-person or online, has been developed for people of Black-African and Black-Caribbean ethnicity with Type 2 diabetes (T2D) in the UK. The programme is designed to help reduce blood sugar (HbA1c) levels, as well as improve knowledge and quality of life. 

 

 

Why is this important?
People of Black-African and Black-Caribbean ethnicity are 2-4 times more likely to develop T2D than people of White ethnicity. But diabetes self-management education and support programmes are considerably less successful in minority ethnic groups, with less people using them and less reduction in HbA1c levels. 

 

Developing a programme to support people of Black-African and Black-Caribbean ethnicity who have T2D is important, because it could help reduce some of the disabling and even life-threatening complications that the disease can produce. This will improve the quality of life for this group, as well as potentially save the NHS money in treatment costs. 

 

 

How are we doing it?
We are going to compare the use of standard diabetes education programmes with the use of the HEAL-D culturally tailored programme. To do this, we intend to recruit 300 adults of Black-African and Black-Caribbean ethnicity from London, Manchester and the West Midlands. 

 

We plan to:

• Run an internal early-stage study to test our recruitment systems.
• Test the effectiveness of HEAL-D, compared with standard education programmes, by comparing participants’ HbA1c levels 12 months after beginning each programme.
• Assess the impact of HEAL-D on other outcomes including blood pressure, blood lipids, weight, waist circumference, body fat, quality of life, depressive symptoms, diabetes knowledge, physical activity, and food intake at 6, 12 and 24 months.
• Assess whether HEAL-D is cost effective.
• Assess how the programme is introduced and delivered in the healthcare system.
• Assess the impact of multiple long-term conditions (MLTC) on how we recruit people to use the programme, how they engage with it and its impact on the MLTC. We will do this in a study called SWAP.

 

 

Who are we working with?

This study is led by Professor Louise Goff, Professor of Nutrition Science at the Leicester Diabetes Centre, University of Leicester. 

 

The Evaluation theme of ARC-GM is working with the HEAL-D team to assess the added value of working with local Voluntary, Community, Faith, and Social Enterprises (VCSFE) to improve recruitment of local people to this trial.

 

For more information on the other organisations and researchers involved in HEAL-D, visit the ‘Meet the researchers’ page. 

 

 

Funding information
This study is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) via its Health Technology Assessment programme Award ID: NIHR151372

 

The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care. 

 

 

More information
 

 

Programme Manager
Cristianne Bukhari
cristianne.bukhari@manchester.ac.uk