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Background and aimsThe DE-PLAN was a European multicenter study, with the primary objective of testing whether a community-based lifestyle modification programme could serve as a means of primary prevention for type 2 diabetes (T2D) in high-risk individuals (based on the FINDRISC questionnaire). The aim of this study was to examine the impact of a 1-year community-based lifestyle intervention on health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in individuals from four participating European centers (Athens, Barcelona, Krakow, Kaunas), through a post-hoc analysis.Materials and methodsEach center was allowed to implement different intervention strategies specifically tailored to the needs of their corresponding population sample. Before and after the intervention, participants underwent clinical evaluation, anthropometric measurements, an oral glucose tolerance test and lipid profile measurements. Health-related quality of life was assessed using the validated HRQOL-15D questionnaire. A difference of ±0.015 in the 15D questionnaire score was set as the threshold of clinically meaningful change.ResultsData from 786 participants (67% females, mean age 59.7±9.4 years, BMI 31.5±4.5 kg/m2) with complete data regarding the HRQOL were analyzed (Athens: 104, Barcelona: 434, Krakow: 175, Kaunas: 70). After 1 year, a significant overall improvement in HRQOL was shown, as depicted by a change of 15D score from baseline value (0.88±0.9) to post-intervention (0.90±0.87, PConclusionA community-based lifestyle intervention programme aiming at T2D prevention, applied on a heterogeneous population and with varied methods, was shown to improve overall health-related quality of life to a clinically meaningful degree.

The DE-PLAN-CAT project (Diabetes in Europe-Prevention using lifestyle, physical activity and nutritional intervention-Catalonia) has shown that an intensive lifestyle intervention is feasible in the primary care setting and substantially reduces the incidence of diabetes among high-risk Mediterranean participants. The DP-TRANSFERS project (Diabetes Prevention-Transferring findings from European research to society) is a large-scale national programme aimed at implementing this intervention in primary care centres whenever feasible.A multidisciplinary committee first evaluated the programme in health professionals and then participants without diabetes aged 45-75 years identified as being at risk of developing diabetes: FINDRISC (Finnish Diabetes Risk Score)>11 and/or pre-diabetes diagnosis. Implementation was supported by a 4-channel transfer approach (institutional relationships, facilitator workshops, collaborative groupware, programme website) and built upon a 3-step (screening, intervention, follow-up) real-life strategy. The 2-year lifestyle intervention included a 9-hour basic module (6 sessions) and a subsequent 15-hour continuity module (10 sessions) delivered by trained primary healthcare professionals. A 3-level (centre, professionals and participants) descriptive analysis was conducted using cluster sampling to assess results and barriers identified one year after implementation.The programme was started in June-2016 and evaluated in July-2017. In all, 103 centres covering all the primary care services for 1.4 million inhabitants (27.9% of all centres in Catalonia) and 506 professionals agreed to develop the programme. At the end of the first year, 83 centres (80.6%) remained active and 305 professionals (60.3%) maintained regular web-based activities. Implementation was not feasible in 20 centres (19.4%), and 5 main barriers were prioritized: lack of healthcare manager commitment; discontinuity of the initial effort; substantial increase in staff workload; shift in professional status and lack of acceptance. Overall, 1819 people were screened and 1458 (80.1%) followed the lifestyle intervention, with 1190 (81.6% or 65.4% of those screened) participating in the basic module and 912 in the continuity module (62.5% or 50.1%, respectively).A large-scale lifestyle intervention in primary care can be properly implemented within a reasonably short time using existing public healthcare resources. Regrettably, one fifth of the centres and more than one third of the professionals showed substantial resistance to performing these additional activities.