Effectiveness of a family-, school- and community-based intervention on physical activity and its correlates in Belgian families with an increased risk for type 2 diabetes mellitus: the Feel4Diabetes-study

Nele Huys ,Anna Nánási ,Odysseas Androutsos ,Katja Wikström ,Yannis Μanios ,Samyah Shadid ,Violeta Iotova ,Konstantinos Makrilakis ,Vicky Van Stappen ,Tsvetalina Tankova ,Luís A Moreno ,Marieke De Craemer ,Greet Cardon

doi:10.1186/s12889-020-09336-7

Abstract

BackgroundThe study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of the European Feel4Diabetes intervention, promoting a healthy lifestyle, on physical activity and its correlates among families at risk for type 2 diabetes mellitus (based on the Finnish Diabetes Risk Score) in Belgium.MethodsThe Feel4Diabetes intervention involved three components: family, school and community component, with the family component consisting of 6 counseling sessions for families at risk. Main outcomes were objectively measured physical activity levels and its subjectively measured correlates. The final sample consisted of 454 parents (mean age 39.4 years; 72.0% women) and 444 children (mean age 8.0 years; 50.1% girls). Multilevel repeated measures analyses were performed to assess intervention effectiveness after 1 year.ResultsIn parents, there was no significant intervention effect. In children, there were only significant negative effects for moderate to vigorous physical activity (p = 0.05; ηp2 = 0.008) and steps (p = 0.03; ηp2 = 0.006%) on weekdays, with physical activity decreasing (more) in the intervention group.ConclusionsThe F4D-intervention lacks effectiveness on high-risk families’ physical activity and its correlates in Belgium. This could partially be explained by low attendance rates and a large drop-out. To reach vulnerable populations, future interventions should invest in more appropriate recruitment (e.g. more face-to-face contact) and more bottom-up development of the intervention (i.e. co-creation of the intervention with the target group).Trial registrationThe Feel4Diabetes-study was prospectively registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT02393872 on 20 March 2015.

Highlights

The study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of the European Feel4Diabetes intervention, promoting a healthy lifestyle, on physical activity and its correlates among families at risk for type 2 diabetes mellitus in Belgium
Data from Germany and parts of Austria showed that type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) incidence in 10- to 20-year olds increased from 0.8% in 1996 to 3.3% in 2003 [5]
For the high-risk families, the analyses showed that a sample size of at least 150 families per country would be sufficient to achieve sufficient statistical power for reducing body mass index (BMI) by 0.7 kg/m2 in the high risk adults

Summary

Introduction

The study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of the European Feel4Diabetes intervention, promoting a healthy lifestyle, on physical activity and its correlates among families at risk for type 2 diabetes mellitus (based on the Finnish Diabetes Risk Score) in Belgium. In Europe, it is estimated to rise from 9.1% in 2017 to 10.8% of adults (20–79 years old) in 2045 [1]. In Belgium, 6.8% of adults was living with diabetes mellitus in 2017 [1], 87–91% of which concerning type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) [2]. A major concern is that T2DM-prevalence is increasing among children and adolescents [3]. Prevalence numbers in Europe are scarce, evidence from the United Kingdom shows an incidence of 0.53 per 100,000 children (< 15 years old) per year [4]. Data from Germany and parts of Austria showed that T2DM incidence in 10- to 20-year olds increased from 0.8% in 1996 to 3.3% in 2003 [5]. As T2DM has significant financial and health impacts (e.g. cardiovascular disease, blindness, kidney failure) [3], preventive strategies are needed to tackle the rising prevalence

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