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A Review of Technology-Assisted Interventions for Diabetes Prevention

  • Lifestyle Management to Reduce Diabetes/Cardiovascular Risk (B Conway and H Keenan, Section Editors)
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose of Review

The high prevalence of prediabetes and success of the diabetes prevention program (DPP) has led to increasing efforts to provide readily accessible, cost-effective DPP interventions to the general public. Technology-assisted DPP interventions are of particular interest since they may be easier to widely distribute and sustain as compared to traditional in-person DPP. The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of currently available technology-assisted DPP interventions.

Recent Findings

This review focuses on studies that have examined the use of mobile phone text messaging, smartphone/web-based apps, and telehealth programs to help prevent or delay the onset of incident type 2 diabetes. While there is variability in the results of studies focused on technology-assisted DPP and weight loss interventions, there is evidence to suggest that these programs have been associated with clinically meaningful weight loss and can be cost-effective.

Summary

Patients who are at risk for diabetes can be offered technology-assisted DPP and weight loss interventions to lower their risk of incident diabetes. Further research should determine what specific combination of intervention features would be most successful.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Hypertension, Department of Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, 900 Veteran Avenue, 24-130 Warren Hall, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA

    Shira Grock, Jeong-hee Ku & Julie Kim

  2. Veterans Affairs Greater Los Angeles Healthcare Systems, 10940 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 700, Los Angeles, CA, 90024, USA

    Tannaz Moin

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  1. Shira Grock
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  2. Jeong-hee Ku
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  3. Julie Kim
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  4. Tannaz Moin
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Correspondence to Shira Grock.

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Shira Grock, Jeong-hee Ku, Julie Kim, and Tannaz Moin declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Lifestyle Management to Reduce Diabetes/Cardiovascular Risk

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Grock, S., Ku, Jh., Kim, J. et al. A Review of Technology-Assisted Interventions for Diabetes Prevention. Curr Diab Rep 17, 107 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11892-017-0948-2

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