Research from around the globe has demonstrated the importance of health promoting behavior for diabetes prevention and management. An important aspect of health promoting behavior is health literacy – the ability of people to access, understand and apply health information for taking decisions about health. Yet, much of the research and the interventions evaluated  have been examined have met significant challenges when generalized to a real-life setting.  Obstacles that have been encountered include among others, the need for cultural appropriateness, inadequate training, lack of health policy, fragmentation of health systems giving mixed messages to the public, and to patients and their families, lack of involvement  of the community in planning and implementation, issue of cost particularly regarding disadvantaged populations and much more, lack of awareness particularly with regard to pre-diabetes and more.

The goal of the D-NET discussion is to share experience and insights regarding how research in the area of interventions for health promoting behavior can be put into practice for the health and well-being of people with diabetes and pre-diabetes.

How can we more effectively influence health promoting behavior among people with pre-diabetes and  diabetes: healthy lifestyles, managing treatment, navigation of health and social systems and beyond

Information about the discussion leader

The discussion will be moderated by Dr. Diane Levin-Zamir (PhD, MPH,  MCHES) National Director, Department of Health Health Education and Promotion, Clalit Health Service Organization; Associate Professor , University of Haifa School of Public Health , Israel; Co-Chairperson Global working Group on Health Literacy of the International Union of Health Education and Promotion

References
1. Van den Broucke, S., Van der Zanden, G., Chang, P., Doyle, G., Levin, D., Schillinger, D., Schwarz, P., Sørensen, K., Yardley, L., & Riemenschneider, H. (2014) Enhancing the effectiveness of diabetes self-management education: The Diabetes Literacy project. Hormone and Metabolic Research  DOI: 10.1055/s-0034-1389952

2. Florian Röthlin, Jürgen M. Pelikan and Kristin Ganahl on behalf of the Diabetes Literacy Consortium (2016), Development of a Diabetes Self-Management Outcome Framework (DSMOF) for the Diabetes Literacy Project

3. Prof. Stephan Van den Broucke on behalf of the diabetes literacy consortium (2015), Effectiveness of Diabetes Self-Management Education and Digital Self-Management Support

4. Rowsell, A., Muller, I., Murray, E., Little, P., Byrne, C., Ganahl, K., Muller, G., Gibney, S., Lyles, C.R., Lucas, A., Nutbeam, D. and Yardley, L (2015) Views of people with high and low levels of health literacy about a digital intervention to promote physical activity for diabetes: a qualitative study in five countries

5. Sujeev S. Bains and Leonard E. Egede (2011) Associations Between Health Literacy, Diabetes Knowledge, Self-Care Behaviors, and Glycemic Control in a Low Income Population with Type 2 Diabetes