A new study has compared employees who took part in a group-based intervention program with those who attempted to go alone, simply from following the advice in a booklet about loss booklet.
Each of the study participants, at the beginning of the exercise, had been medical assessed as having pre-diabetes. This was based on their blood sugar levels being above the common average and here, as the U.K. Diabetes Association indicates, there is a risk of the individuals developing type 2 diabetes.
Based on the pre-diabetes assessment, each of the people was advised to lose 7 percent of their body weight over the 16-week time frame. Sixteen weeks became the basis of the study.
The subjects were randomly divided up into a set who were asked to work together in a group, and a set who were given advice booklets and told to work on lifestyle changes by themselves. The booklet was produced by the U.S. National Diabetes Education Program. Similar advice was given to both sets: dieting, eating lower far food, and exercising more. With the set who worked as group, in addition they had regular meetings to discuss their progress.
The outcome was the set who worked together and met regularly as group showed greater weight loss, losing an average of 6 percent of their body weight. The solo set only lost an average of 0.5 percent. A review of diet and exercise revealed the group set eat lower fat and more fiber rich foods, and undertook more regular exercise.
The study was conducted by researchers from Ohio State University and published in the journal Preventing Chronic Disease. The research paper is headed “A Randomized Controlled Trial Translating the Diabetes Prevention Program to a University Worksite, Ohio, 2012–2014.”
