Concepts and new frontiers for development - What role should health promoters play in lifestyle-based diabetes prevention programs in Australia?

Abstract

Issue addressed: As the prevalence of many chronic diseases, particularly type 2 diabetes continues to increase, Australia?s health system must be able to respond in an appropriate and cost-effective way. These efforts have been enhanced recently by a number of Council of Australian Governments? initiatives that have seen an increased focus on lifestyle-based secondary prevention of chronic disease, in particular for diabetes. This paper aims to stimulate interest and debate in relation to the role that health promotion practitioners can play in shaping lifestyle-based diabetes prevention programs in Australia. The paper briefly describes the chronic disease prevention policy context in Australia and defines primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention. It also examines effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of diabetes prevention interventions and describes how the field can use its expertise in the areas of equity, diffusion of innovation, partnership development, participant empowerment and advocacy in order to shape the design, implementation and evaluation of lifestyle-based diabetes prevention programs in Australia. Conclusions: State and national governments have substantially increased their investment in lifestyle-based diabetes prevention programs in Australia. If they are found to be effective and cost effective they are likely to attract additional investment and make up an increasing proportion of the prevention budget and accordingly, should not be ignored by the field of health promotion. Key words: Secondary prevention, diabetes prevention, chronic disease, lifestyle behaviour change.