Using Community Health Workers to Address Barriers to Participation and Retention in Diabetes Prevention Program: A Concept Paper

Objective: The PreventionLink of Southern Maryland is a 5-year project to eliminate barriers to participation and retention in the National Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) lifestyle change program to prevent or delay the onset of type 2 diabetes in adults with prediabetes. This is the study to identify the obstacles to participation and retention in the DPP lifestyle change program among high burden populations and learn how CHWs have reduced the identified barriers to participation and retention for high burden populations. Methods: We followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) to conduct this literature review. We have used the Scopus and PubMed, including all types of studies and peer-reviewed documents published in English between 2010 and 2020. Results: From 131 identified articles, 18 articles were selected for qualitative synthesis. The reviewed literature documented following as main barriers to participate in a DPP lifestyle change program: time, cost, lack of transportation, cost of transportation, commute distance, technology access, access to facilities and community programs, caregiver responsibilities, lack of health literacy and awareness, and language. CHWs can address these barriers to participation and retention, they were involved in educating and supporting roles; they worked as bridges between healthcare providers and participants and as intervention team members. Conclusions: Diabetes prevention program participants with social determinant risk factors who most need CHW services are unlikely to have financial resources to pay for CHW services out-of-pocket. Hence, the public and private health plans that pay for their prediabetes care should consider paying for these CHW services and there is a need to trust more to CHW and have them as a “community health teams” member.