Reducing health risks of diabetes on a national scale

The substantial health and economic impacts of diabetes represents a major public health challenge which in turn has put a focus on the upstream prevention of diabetes.  Eighty-six million adults have prediabetes and are at high risk for developing diabetes¹.  Given the scale of this threat, community-based organizations, particularly those with national affiliate networks like the Y, are being asked to become adjunct providers of traditional health delivery systems.  In this role the Y has the ability to reach a large number of people in a variety of settings, infrastructure to allow for broad-scale dissemination of programs and strategies, and brand equity and trust among those they serve.  

Through the YMCA’s Diabetes Prevention Program, the Y is scaling an evidence-based intervention designed to help adults reduce their risk for the development of type 2 diabetes through lifestyle behavior change.  To date, more than 27,000 people have participated in the Y’s program in more than 1,095 program locations; this represents a 36% growth in the number of participants served over the last year. 

In order to scale the program effectively, the Y has conducted a significant amount of analysis on costs across a wide variety of community sizes in order to determine how best to coach Ys around practices related to program operations, anticipated costs/revenue and projected participants in effort to create a sustainable diabetes prevention delivery model.  Ensuring a sustainable model has meant cultivating a healthy revenue mix that includes third-party insurance coverage, corporate wellness contracts, self-pay, and grant funding.