BACKGROUND
Approximately 4.5 million people live with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in the United Kingdom. Evidence shows that structured education programs can improve glycemic control and reduce the risk of complications from T2DM, but they have low attendance rates. To widen access to T2DM structured education, National Health Service England commissioned a national rollout of Healthy Living, a digital self-management program.
OBJECTIVE
The objectives were to understand the barriers and enablers to adopting, implementing, and integrating Healthy Living into existing T2DM care pathways across England.
METHODS
We undertook a cross-sectional, qualitative telephone semistructured interview study to address the objectives. In total, 17 local National Health Service leads responsible for implementing Healthy Living across their locality were recruited. We conducted 16 one-time interviews across 16 case sites (1 of the interviews was conducted with 2 local leads from the same case site). Interview data were analyzed using thematic analysis.
RESULTS
Three overarching themes were generated: (1) implementation activities, (2) where Healthy Living fits within existing pathways, and (3) contextual factors affecting implementation. Of the 16 sites, 14 (88%) were implementing Healthy Living; the barrier to not implementing it in 2 case sites was not wanting Healthy Living to compete with their current education provision for T2DM. We identified 6 categories of implementation activities across sites: communication strategies to raise awareness of Healthy Living, developing bespoke local resources to support general practices with referrals, providing financial reimbursement or incentives to general practices, promoting Healthy Living via public events, monitoring implementation across their footprint, and widening access across high-need groups. However, outside early engagement sites, most implementation activities were “light touch,” consisting mainly of one-way communications to raise awareness. Local leads were generally positive about Healthy Living as an additional part of their T2DM structured education programs, but some felt it was more suited to specific patient groups. Barriers to undertaking more prolonged, targeted implementation campaigns included implementation not being mandated, sites not receiving data on uptake across their footprint, and confusion in understanding where Healthy Living fit within existing care pathways.
CONCLUSIONS
A passive process of disseminating information about Healthy Living to general practices rather than an active process of implementation occurred across most sites sampled. This study identified that there is a need for clearer communications regarding the type of patients that may benefit from the Healthy Living program, including when it should be offered and whether it should be offered instead of or in addition to other education programs. No sites other than early engagement sites received data to monitor uptake across their footprint. Understanding variability in uptake across practices may have enabled sites to plan targeted referral campaigns in practices that were not using the service.
