Lessons learned in using health education and communication approaches to address diabetes across the lifespan: The National Diabetes Education Program

Background: Diabetes affects 25.8 million people in the U.S. across the lifespan. Since 1997, the National Diabetes Education Program (NDEP), a joint program of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health, has collaborated with over 200 partners to use health education and communication approaches to prevent diabetes and its complications. Because information needs and challenges differ by life stage, NDEP has developed and promoted tailored resources for children and youth, adults, and older adults.

Methods: NDEP and its partners use an audience-focused strategic approach to translating the science into messages and strategies that will provide audiences with the information and support needed to make behavior changes. This involves conducting formative research with children and youth, adults of different ethnic/racial groups, and older adults, using the results to develop tailored messages and materials, pretesting, promoting the materials through multiple channels, and monitoring and evaluating the results.

Results and discussion: During its 15 years, NDEP has gained extensive knowledge of how to effectively educate, motivate, and support children and youth, adults, and older adults to make the lifestyle and diabetes management changes necessary to prevent and control diabetes. This poster will describe lessons learned about effectively reaching and addressing each age group, providing examples of resources developed and noting the unique factors that need to be considered for each age group. It also will describe health education and communication approaches that apply to all age groups.