OH to Offer Diabetes Prevention Program

Owensboro Health will begin offering a CDC-recognized lifestyle diabetes prevention program, Prevent T2, starting in November at its Healthpark facility at 1006 Ford Ave.

The program is a year-long series that includes 23 sessions geared towards teaching participants how to make changes to help lower their risk of developing diabetes while promoting healthy weight loss. Classes begin at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 9 in Classroom A and will meet for one hour weekly for eight sessions before meeting every other week, followed by four monthly sessions.

The program is for people classified as prediabetic — meaning their blood sugar level is above normal but not high enough to be considered diabetic — to help combat the risk of Type 2 diabetes, heart disease and stroke. Requirements to participate in the program include having elevated blood sugar or “borderline diabetes;” people who have had gestational diabetes; people with a family history of diabetes and are overweight with an A1C between 5.7-6.4%; people with a fasting plasma glucose between 100-125 mg/dL; and/or people who might be at risk via the CDC Prediabetes Screening Test.

In order to participate, attendance is required at one of the two information sessions scheduled for 5 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 19 and Wednesday, Oct. 26 in Classroom A. Beth Cecil, registered dietitian and manager of community wellness for Owensboro Health, said the program began around 2015 and saw a peak interest with people taking part in 2020 and 2021.

Cecil said a majority of participants have found out their blood sugar is in the prediabetes range and usually have “a genuine interest in getting their lifestyle changed to keep them from getting diabetes.”

Topics of discussion for the sessions range from healthy eating, how to increase physical activity and becoming more active, stress management, along with conversations on carbohydrates, different types of fats, dining out and how sleep can affect eating habits.

The goal of the program is for participants to lose 5-7% of their starting body weight; work up to 150 minutes of physical activity per week; learn how to eat healthy by tracking daily caloric and fat intake; and cut their risk for developing Type 2 diabetes in half.

Cecil said prediabetes is reversible and highlighted the program’s previous successes, such as all participants in the previous two classes having lost weight and improved their A1C levels.

“The diabetes prevention program has actually been proven to reduce participants’ blood sugar back to a normal level,” she said, “and that will reduce their risk of developing diabetes.” Cecil said a new session cycle will be starting every three months for new participants, and a maintenance program will be offered to those who finish the year-long program.

For those who don’t qualify for the program or simply want to learn more about the topic, Cecil said people are invited to touch base with fellow dietitians that see patients by appointment. There are also plans to offer some community education classes in 2023.

"If people call and they don’t qualify for the class, we’ll try to help them (and) connect them to something that will … and get (them) to the right resource,” she said.

For more information, contact Cecil at 270-688-4804 or beth.cecil@owensborohealth.org or visit our webpage.

Take the CDC Prediabetes Screening Test at CDC.gov