On the 12th of November we were awarded the Team of the Year in the Annual celebrating Desmond Awards.
This award recognised the innovative approach and hard work exhibited by the Lifestyles Team in the Health Improvement Service when delivering the ‘walking away from diabetes’ programme in Bromley.
The team set up systems to ensure it could demonstrate that the programme is having an impact on desirable behaviour changes and clinical outcomes. Pre and post assessments have been carried out on the following:
- Number of daily steps
- Frequency of physical activity
- Duration of any physical activity
This involved sending out a pedometer to all participants two weeks before the programme and recording the average amount of daily steps walked pre and post intervention with the following results:
- Average increase in steps of 1,455 per completer
- Average increase in frequency of activity by 2 times per week
- Average increase in minutes of activity by 81.6 minutes per week
The team also demonstrated the impact the programme is having on the clinical outcomes for the completers of the programme. This has been achieved by comparing the pre HbA1c (fasting blood glucose reading) that was collected as part of the referral to the programme, with the HbA1c 6-12 months after they attended the programme. From the 64 results we have been able to get, 44 (68.75%) have reduced their HbA1c/fasting blood glucose and six have stayed the same (9.38%).
Our entry beat stiff competition from as far afield as Australia. The judging panel commented:
‘It was clear from your submission that you and your team are making a difference to the lives of people with Type 2 diabetes by going above and beyond in delivering the DESMOND Programme.’