Hi, my name is Shivangi Patel, and I'm a fourth-year medical student at Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine in Athens, Ohio, and the project I'm going to be presenting is called Preliminary Results of Prospective Evaluation of an Online Diabetes Health Coaching Program. So, prediabetes, type 2 diabetes, and gestational diabetes are often preventable and reversible diseases when the appropriate lifestyle measures are taken. Health and wellness coaching is an emerging tool for chronic disease prevention and treatment. On that note, Mastering Diabetes is an online, self-paced health coaching program that provides 16 weeks of instruction on how to transition to a low-fat, plant-based, whole-food diet utilizing online education, day-to-day accountability, and support with videoconferencing. As previously demonstrated in a retrospective pilot study, there was shown to have reductions in hemoglobin A1c's, BMI's, medication use, also the sense of improved health, patient satisfaction, and the adherence to lifestyle change. So, in this study, the objective is to prospectively determine the effectiveness of this Mastering Diabetes online program in improving the levels of biomarkers in these participants that are living with diabetes. So, the clients of this program, Mastering Diabetes, were instructed to eat a nutrient-dense, low-fat, plant-based, whole-food diet, so mainly consisting of fruits, veggies, legumes, and whole grains. We collected data at baseline, and then also 12 weeks post-participation, and the biomarkers that were evaluated in this study are the total cholesterol, HDL, LDL, triglycerides, the A1c, BMI, and systolic and diastolic blood pressures. Markers were computed for each dependent variable by time, and then the effect size was calculated for each of the different variables, and it was interpreted as either small, medium, or large effect size. And then the lab analysis was done at a commercial lab, while results and vital signs were self-reported. To date, this study, we have had 28 participants, and 23 were female, 5 were male. The mean age of the study was 56. So, the results are shown on this table, and in this table, you can see that there were significant reductions in both the systolic and diastolic blood pressures. The BMI, the hemoglobin A1c, the total cholesterol, and LDL, and you can see that based off of the p-score, and the p-value is less than 0.05. And then additionally, you can see that BMI and total cholesterol have a large effect size, because the p-score is less than 0.001. And then the systolic-diastolic blood pressures, the A1c and the LDL, all have medium effect sizes. So, this study has demonstrated effectiveness in reducing multiple biomarkers of diabetes. As I previously mentioned, BMI, A1c, total cholesterol, LDL, systolic, and diastolic blood pressures. And you can also see that there is a trend toward also improving the triglycerides. So, future analysis will include having additional participants in this study, and also further work we will focus on increasing the availability of these programs, these online programs, so more people can have access to it, to the general population, and also how to motivate people to engage in this online program.

Mastering Diabetes

online health coaching

low-fat plant-based diet

diabetes management

study results