The New York Academy of Medicine

The National Diabetes Prevention Program (NDPP) is a lifestyle intervention program that has been proven to help participants achieve sustained weight loss and reduce their risk of developing Type 2 diabetes by 50%. NYHealth has worked to support the dissemination of the NDPP, with the program being implemented widely by community-based organizations across New York State.

However, participant attendance and retention are major concerns. To successfully complete the NDPP, participants are required to make significant time and behavioral commitments, which may lead to disengagement for some. For example, results from an evaluation of the Y-DPP (the YMCA’s adaption of the NDPP) in New York State found that 72% of participants attended more than half of the 16 sessions. In 2016, NYHealth awarded the New York Academy of Medicine (NYAM) a grant to develop a study on the factors that contribute to discontinued participation in the NDPP.

Under this grant, NYAM developed and conducted a study on the individual, social, environmental, and programmatic factors that lead to discontinued NDPP participation. Specifically, NYAM conducted interviews with individuals who stopped participating after attending at least two sessions, selecting participants from a minimum of 10 NDPP programs throughout the State. NYAM interviewed participants who discontinued the program about their motivation, perceived risk of diabetes, self-efficacy, barriers to attendance, perceived effectiveness of the NDPP, and recommendations for program improvement. Results of the study were shared through presentations, publicly available reports, and/or journal articles, with the goal to better inform NDPP implementation and improve retention rates.