A randomized comparative effectiveness trial of using cable television to deliver diabetes prevention programming

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the use and effectiveness of two “in-home” strategies for delivering diabetes prevention programming using cable television. METHODS: An individually randomized, two-arm intervention trial including adults with diabetes risk factors living in two US cities. Interventions involved a 16-session lifestyle intervention delivered via “video-on-demand” cable television, offered alone versus in combination with web-based lifestyle support tools. Repeated measures longitudinal linear regression with imputation of missing observations was used to compare changes in body weight. RESULTS: A total of 306 individuals were randomized and offered the interventions. After 5 months, 265 (87%) participants viewed at least 1, and 110 (36%) viewed ≥9 of the video episodes. A total of 262 (86%) participants completed a 5-month weight measurement. In intention-to-treat analysis with imputation of missing observations, mean weight loss at 5 months for both treatment groups combined was 3.3% (95% CI 0.7-5.0%), regardless of intervention participation (with no differences between randomized groups (P = 0.19)), and was 4.9% (95% CI 2.1-6.5%) for participants who viewed ≥9 episodes. CONCLUSIONS: In-home delivery of evidence-based diabetes prevention programming in a reality television format, offered with or without online behavioral support tools, can achieve modest weight losses consistent with past implementation studies of face-to-face programs using similar content.