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Student Symposium 2021

Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP)

Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP)

The research study focused on looking at prediabetic individuals enrolled in the CDC’s Diabetes Prevention Program, or DPP for short, and each participant's overall balance was assessed at the beginning and end of the course.

The course is split up into two halves: part 1 is 16 weeks and part 2 is 6 months, thus resulting in a one year-long program. Participants meet once a week for the first part and once a month for the second part. In part 1, participants are given goals of 150 minutes of activity each week, and to lose 5-7% of their starting weight by week 16. Topics on exercising, eating healthy, stress management, and goal setting are just a few areas that participants focus on throughout the duration of the program.

Keith and Natalie, the two audiology students overseeing the project, became certified lifestyle coaches in order to facilitate these programs. Also, graduate students from other disciplines like exercise science, nutrition and dietetics, counseling psychology, and social work also became lifestyle coaches. In addition to coaching weekly, we held meetings regularly with all of the coaches to not only help jumpstart the program at Ball State again, but also we worked together to manage the best care that we could provide to our participants in order to help them achieve their goals.