50 adolescents and their families have been included in a programme to promote health and a change of life habits. Three basic areas will be covered in this programme: eating, physical activity and emotional health.
This programme has been developed as part of the European project called Pre-Start, Prevention Strategies for Adolescents at Risk of Diabetes, in which Kronikgune and Osakidetza are taking part as partners. A programme to promote healthy lifestyles has been designed, aimed at preventing the risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes in adolescents.
The Pre-Start intervention has been implemented in three of Osakidetza‘s organisations: OSI Tolosaldea, OSI Bidasoa and OSI Donostialdea. The first two organisations are the control groups, which means that the 50 adolescents who are taking part in the study will be monitored following the usual procedures of the Basque Health System. OSI Donostialdea, however, has been selected as an intervention group and is going to monitor patients. At health centres belonging to OSI Donostialdea, paediatricians taking part in the study have selected 50 adolescents who have risk factors for developing Type 2 diabetes, are overweight and lead a sedentary lifestyle.
The programme is made up of eight educational sessions by expert nutritionists, over eight consecutive weeks. All the sessions will cover three basic areas. First, eating, by explaining all about the food groups, types of nutrients, energy balance and healthy eating; second, the importance of doing daily physical exercise with different games and activities in each session; and finally, reinforce emotionally, by developing activities to gain more self-confidence and managing to unite the group and boost the patients’ confidence in it.
During the programme the adolescents will also work on and learn the principles of healthy eating, how to increase the amount of physical exercise they do, how to be less sedentary, how to practise self-control, how to improve their body image, how to communicate, and how to solve conflicts and be assertive, amongst other things. Cognitive behavioural and psychodynamic therapy will be used to deal with these topics. The same topics will be covered in the sessions with the adolescents’ families. The programme aims to make parents more aware of the problems that their children can have if they are overweight, and of the importance of lifestyle changes at home.
When the programme is finished there will be sessions to go over what they have learnt, to help them remember it.
This study and the programme will help to assess whether the intervention that has been designed actually encourages a change of lifestyle in adolescents who have risk factors for developing Type 2 diabetes and at their homes.
If you would like to learn more about this project, click here.