Diabetes charity refutes claims structured education is ineffective

A diabetes education charity has hit out at claims that structured diabetes education programmes fail to show results in patients.

X-PERT Health, which offers six-week education programmes to people with diabetes, responded to the findings of an analysis of the first UK national education programme for people with Type 2 diabetes. The study found no difference in blood glucose levels, physical activity or smoking in a group given advice on self-care of diabetes soon after diagnosis, compared with the outcomes for people who attended a one-day course. It concluded that educating patients to self-manage their diabetes has little effect long-term on their lifestyle choices or their health outcomes.

This is being interpreted as casting “doubt over the validity of NICE guidelines that recommend all patients diagnosed with diabetes are given ‘structured education’ around the time of diagnosis, and annually thereafter”.

X-PERT says people who have attended its courses, which are offered free to patients through the NHS, have seen significant improvements in their health and lifestyle.

Dr Trudi Deakin, chief executive of X-PERT, said: “Our results speak for themselves – we can prove our participants have halted, and in some cases even reversed the progression of Type 2 diabetes.

“In light of this, we object to the generalisation that structured education is not an effective way of dealing with diabetes.”

An audit of the outcomes of over 23,000 people who attended X-PERT self-management courses showed an average weight loss of 3.1kg per person over the course of a year, while waist circumference dropped by an average of 2.4cm over a two-year period.

Blood pressure, blood glucose and cholesterol levels also saw a significant drop among participants.

Dr Deakin added: “We have experienced first-hand the dramatic outcomes of diabetes self-management – by taking charge of their condition, participants have lost weight, increased activity and controlled their blood glucose, blood pressure and cholesterol levels.”

Diabetes currently affects 3.8 million people in the UK and the costs the NHS £1million per hour. X-PERT believes a UK-wide rollout of its programmes could save the NHS £367 million a year.

For more information about X-PERT Health www.xperthealth.org.uk. The complete analysis of audit results is also available from admin@xperthealth.org.uk.