The community based diabetes prevention program will determine optimal ways to translate the programs developed for research studies of lifestyle interventions for diabetes prevention to real-life settings in Chennai, India.
The Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University will collaborate with a team of investigators from Madras Diabetes Research Foundation and will facilitate a study of 700 people with pre-diabetes in Chennai.
The study is designed to explore ways to identify and evaluate culturally appropriate, low-cost, feasible and sustainable ways to promote changes in health behaviours, improved diet, weight loss and increased physical activity to prevent diabetes in those in South India.
The messages will be tailored to the unique dietary patterns and physical activity programs of Indian communities and will be designed to determine if these targeted interventions are effective and cost-effective. Data and results from the trial will be used to design and advocate policy and public health recommendations, which will result in broader diabetes prevention efforts in India and other South Asian countries.
The culturally specific randomized trial in India, along with the 10 other selected translational research projects, was chosen because of its innovative idea, demonstration of the potential for health care cost savings, sustainability plans and the opportunity for its results to be widely replicated in other settings.