Consulting consumers to develop marketing and recruitment strategies for a diabetes prevention program

Abstract

Recruitment of participants to health education programs is a challenge often encountered in community health care settings. This paper outlines the process used to identify what strategies, approaches and messages raise community awareness of risk factors for type 2 diabetes and elicit action on the part of individuals to address risk factors. Consumer focus groups were conducted to explore people’s concerns, knowledge and beliefs around prevention of diabetes and with an aim to identify marketing messages and strategies for engaging participants in a diabetes prevention program. Findings from the focus groups were used to develop marketing messages that were then tested in further consumer consultations. They identified commonalities and differences between cultural groups. The key common point in relation to the marketing messages was the need to emphasise the consequences of type 2 diabetes and the individual relevance of risk factors. The importance of receiving information from trusted health professionals and the need to personalise messages of risk and encourage individual action was also highlighted in the research and incorporated into marketing and recruitment strategies.

Perceptions of social, emotional, and functional values in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and their satisfaction with primary health care services

“…Consumer focus groups were conducted to explore concerns, knowledge, and beliefs around prevention of T2DM, and the study results found out that the most important areas are risk factors, nature of condition, and preventative benefit of lifestyle changes (Berryman et al, 2009). The qualitative study executed with patients diagnosed with diabetes and having poor glycemic control identified a wide variety of strategies on how to manage their disease (Berenguera et al, 2016).…”

Implementation salvage experiences from the Melbourne diabetes prevention study

“…Berryman et al (2009) have shown that diabetes is not regarded as an issue of great concern compared with other diseases, that perceived personal risk of contracting diabetes is low, and the seriousness of diabetes is underestimated because management appears straightforward [52]. …”

“…Motivating individuals to attend a diabetes prevention program and change lifestyle behaviours requires more than an advertising message. Recruitment strategies used in RCTs require personalisation of the risk message by a suitable health professional as they are a trusted source of information and advice [52], but GP involvement is time-consuming and impractical in some contexts [47,53]. Additionally, GPs own beliefs relating to the efficacy, effectiveness and side-effects of a program have been shown to influence both doctor and patient screening and recruitment in clinical trials [47,48].…”