Independent evaluation of the North East Hampshire and Farnham Vanguard Pre-Diabetes Education Programme

Abstract

Background: This report reviews the first two courses of a six week pre-diabetes education course offered as part of a Wessex Vanguard Programme.

Aims and objectives: The evaluation explored the impact of the course on participants’ knowledge, skills and confidence to self-care for their condition. It also sought to understand the drivers and barriers to course participation. The course was initially meant to focus on how to avoid diabetes, but due to the breadth of selection criteria and the profile of those who attended, the course offered was a generic well-being course (yet 14 out of 22 appear to have pre-diabetes – see appendix 1).

Methods: The evaluation comprised before and after paired samples of self-reported outcomes surveys of personal well-being, health confidence and self-care (R-Outcomes, n=23), telephone interviews (n=10) and postal surveys to examine the drivers and barriers to starting and completing (n=19).

Results: The results from the postal and telephone surveys suggest that at least 14 out of 22 respondents (64%) who completed the course had pre-diabetes. The analysis of self-reported outcomes (R-Outcomes) found substantial positive changes before and after the course in relation to health confidence and self-care. Of 34 people who started the course, 22 completed four or more sessions, of which and seven out of ten who took part in the telephone survey agreed that the course had provided them with a good understanding of how to reduce the likelihood of developing diabetes and how to make better lifestyle choices, and that they were likely to use the competencies learnt in their daily life. Informative and supportive group discussions were identified as important to their learning. Twelve out of 22 people who attended four or more sessions completed a postal survey asking them the reasons for attending. Key reasons for completing 4 or more sessions were health related (39% of responses) and course related (30% of responses). Both positive and negative comments about the course and tutors were made. Nine out of twelve (75%) underlined preventing diabetes as a reason for undertaking the course.Out of the twelve people completed less than four sessions, six completed a postal survey asking them about the reasons for attending. Key reasons for attending less than four sessions were lack of relevance to needs (38% of responses) and deficiencies in the course (38% of responses). Four out of six (or two thirds) indicated preventing diabetes as a reason for undertaking the course.

Conclusion: Because Happy, Healthy, at Home decided that only those who attended the first two courses would be surveyed, the evaluation is necessarily limited. The impact on use of health services (GP appointments, A&E attendance, acute hospital admissions) was not investigated due to the small sample and governance difficulties in accessing such data.

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