More than half of overweight patients who routinely attended sessions on the NHS Type 2 Diabetes Prevention Programme achieved an average weight loss equivalent to nearly 15 double cheese burgers, new data has revealed.
NHS England has released figures which show that more than 50% of people have completed the flagship scheme after attending at least 8 support sessions over a 9-month period, losing an average of 3.3 kg.
Professor Jonathan Valabhji, National Clinical Director for Diabetes and Obesity, at NHS England said: “While it is early days, this data from several thousand people is very promising. Not only is our prevention programme exceeding the initial targets set for referrals and equity of access, what we are now starting to see is the first set of encouraging weight loss results too.”
The programme, which was announced in 2015, has not yet achieved complete national coverage, but in the last 21 months of roll-out, more than 154,000 people have been referred, with around 66,000 people taking up places.
The latest set of national clinical diabetes audits have also been published for England and Wales. The National Diabetes Audit 2016-17 shows that treatment targets have been achieved for HbA1c, BP and cholesterol for many, with more than 10% improvement in HbA1c for type 1 diabetes and BP for type 2 diabetes over the 6-year period of 2011-12 to 2016-17.
