A Self-Affirmation Intervention to Enhance Patient Outreach for Health System-based Lifestyle Programs for Diabetes Prevention

Background: Despite availability of evidence-based programs for diabetes prevention, few strategies exist to promote patients' interest in them. Strategies should be developed for racial/ethnic minority women with a history of gestational diabetes (GDM), who face exceptionally high risk for chronic diabetes. We previously found that a theory-based outreach message containing a streamlined values affirmation-two sentences prompting individuals to reflect on core personal values-increased women's likelihood of demonstrating interest in a preventive program. Extending this work, this pilot trial tests whether the values affirmation outreach message is as acceptable as (non-inferior to) a standard outreach message among African-American and Latina women.

Methods: Two-arm, parallel-group, randomized trial among English- and Spanish-speaking minority women with prior GDM and overweight/obesity in a healthcare system. Within an online survey, participants are randomized to read an outreach message promoting an existing preventive program. The message contains either a values affirmation (intervention condition) or no affirmation (control condition).