Quasi-experimental evaluation of a nationwide diabetes prevention programme

Diabetes is a leading cause of morbidity, mortality and cost of illness 1 , 2 . Health behaviours, particularly those related to nutrition and physical activity, play a key role in the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus 3 . Whereas behaviour change programmes (also known as lifestyle interventions or similar) have been found efficacious in controlled clinical trials 4 , 5 , there remains controversy about whether targeting health behaviours at the individual level is an effective preventive strategy for type 2 diabetes mellitus 6 and doubt among clinicians that lifestyle advice and counselling provided in the routine health system can achieve improvements in health 7 – 9 . Here we show that being referred to the largest behaviour change programme for prediabetes globally (the English Diabetes Prevention Programme) is effective in improving key cardiovascular risk factors, including glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c), excess body weight and serum lipid levels. We do so by using a regression discontinuity design 10 , which uses the eligibility threshold in HbA1c for referral to the behaviour change programme, in electronic health data from about one-fifth of all primary care practices in England. We confirm our main finding, the improvement of HbA1c, using two other quasi-experimental approaches: difference-in-differences analysis exploiting the phased roll-out of the programme and instrumental variable estimation exploiting regional variation in programme coverage. This analysis provides causal, rather than associational, evidence that lifestyle advice and counselling implemented at scale in a national health system can achieve important health improvements. Analysis of the largest behaviour change programme for prediabetes globally provides causal evidence that lifestyle advice and counselling implemented at scale can improve key cardiovascular risk factors.