Testing the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) on Reducing Weight (Heather Paper)
Building on the relationships and progress in reducing heart disease risk, our team continued to focus on reducing chronic disease risk by focusing more on weight loss. With funding from the NIH National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD), we modified our approach by testing the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) in the congregational setting. The DPP was a well-known program with global reach, that is successful improving diet, increasing physical activity, and reducing weight in order to lower chronic disease risk.60 Our programs and a large body of research demonstrate that African American women have disproportionately higher rates of obesity, prediabetes, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease compared to White women.61 African American women tend to have less success than others in lifestyle interventions and DPP translations in African Americans have been suboptimal.62-65
We continued using church-based community health workers to co-deliver and support the program elements in the congregations. Consistent with the findings from our heart disease risk reduction program, we combined faith-based components - including active church leader support – into the standard DPP curriculum. Participants in the program who were followed for 10 months had significant improvements in weight loss, health behaviors, and biometrics.66 The study is very important for several reasons. It demonstrated that participants in the faith-based adaption of the DPP who received at least 15 sessions nearly reached the DPP’s original goal of 7% weight loss and met the CDC’s goal of 5% weight loss. Thus, a faith-based version of the DPP has the potential to help African American women reach 5% weight loss in a community-setting outside of the AHC. Further, the program demonstrated that female African-American congregation members can successfully deliver the DPP providing a potential pathway for increasing reach and adoption into high-risk communities.66