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\nDecember 20, 2012
\n \n\u201cDiabetes is a disease where ignorance isn\u2019t bliss,\u201d Ann Albright, PhD, RD, emphasized to CDC Director Thomas Frieden, MD, MPH, during their Conversations with the Director talk. What is necessary, Albright explained, is engaging people who have diabetes or are at risk for developing diabetes and actively involving them in their preventive care.
\nAlbright should know. She is the director of CDC\u2019s Division of Diabetes Translation (DDT) and has dedicated her career to diabetes prevention and control. Prior to joining CDC in 2007, Albright led the California Department of Health Services\u2019 Diabetes Program, as well as served as the US Surgeon General\u2019s senior health policy advisor and the Secretary of Health\u2019s Diabetes Detection Initiative director. In addition to her professional experience, Albright has spent the majority of her life successfully managing type 1 diabetes. She joked with Frieden that diabetes advocates often call her the trifecta \u2013 someone with diabetes, a clinician, and a researcher.
\nDuring their hour-long conversation, Albright and Frieden talked about DDT\u2019s public health initiatives to reduce the nation\u2019s growing yet preventable burden of diabetes, which has seen a dramatic increase in prevalence over the past 15 years. \u201cIn 1995 only three states, Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico had a diagnosed disease prevalence of six percent or more. By 2010, all 50 states had a prevalence of more than six percent,\u201d explained Albright in her team\u2019s recent article in CDC\u2019s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. \u201cThese rates will continue to increase until effective interventions and policies are implemented to prevent both type 2 diabetes and obesity.\u201d
\nMore than 40 percent of DDT\u2019s budget supports Diabetes Prevention and Control Programs (DPCPs) run by health departments in all 50 states, US territories, and in Washington, DC. \u201cTell me about your $26 million grant programs to states,\u201d asked. Frieden during their talk. \u201cWhat does that buy?\u201d A good portion of the afternoon\u2019s conversation was dedicated to state programs\u2014the challenge of supporting so many DPCPs, which vary in size and scope, and the potential to help millions of people. \u201cIf you could blink and change the world,\u201d Frieden challenged with a smile, \u201cwhat would these programs be doing?\u201d
\n\u201cThe direction our division\u2019s moving in is to be much more targeted in what we\u2019re having states do,\u201d Albright explained. Priorities include surveillance and working with clinicians and the healthcare delivery system to improve diabetes care. \u201cWe also want states to focus on getting people with diabetes and prediabetes into proven self-management programs, which are necessary for diabetes control and prevention.\u201d
\nOne such program is DDT\u2019s National Diabetes Prevention Program (NDPP). Based on the Diabetes Prevention Program research study led by the National Institutes of Health and supported by CDC, the NDPP works with a variety of partners\u2014government agencies, community organizations, employers, insurers, and healthcare professionals\u2014to set up community evidence-based, lifestyle change programs to prevent type 2 diabetes among people with prediabetes. Participants work with a lifestyle coach in a group setting to improve their eating habits, increase their physical activity to 150 minutes a week, and lose five to seven percent of their body weight. When done together, these modest lifestyle changes can reduce a participant\u2019s risk for developing type 2 diabetes by 58 percent.
\n\u201cPeople come into this program with a known diagnosis of prediabetes, which is very much a motivator for them,\u201d Albright told Frieden. While everyone is working towards the same goals, she added, the program is much more than simply losing weight. It is about giving participants a supportive environment and a customized approach to making lifestyle changes. \u201cPeople discover what it is that works best for them.\u201d
\nThis Article by Jessica Podlaski.
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