{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"ScholarlyArticle","headline":"Design and early use of the nationally implemented Healthier You National Health Service Digital Diabetes Prevention Programme: mixed methods study","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Peter Bower"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Claudia Soiland-Reyes"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Carole Bennett"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Lisa Brunton"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Patrick Burch"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Elaine Cameron"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Tarani Chandola"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Georgia Chatzi"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Cotterill"},{"@type":"Person","name":"David P French"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Judith Gellatly"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Mark Hann"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Rhiannon Hawkes"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Simon Heller"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Fiona Holland"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Elizabeth Howarth"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Kelly Howells"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Evangelos Kontopantelis"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Eric Lowndes"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Antonia Marsden"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Thomas Mason"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Emma McManus"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Rachel Meacock"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Lisa Miles"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Manoj Mistry"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Elizabeth Murray"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Beth Parkinson"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Rathi Ravindrarajah"},{"@type":"Person","name":"David Reeves"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Jamie Ross"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Caroline Sanders"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Jonathan Stokes"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Helen Wallworth"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Ruth Watkinson"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Vasudha Wattal"},{"@type":"Person","name":"William Whittaker"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Paul Wilson"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Adrine Woodham"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Matt Sutton"}],"datePublished":"2025","isPartOf":{"@type":"Periodical","name":"Health and Social Care Delivery Research"},"identifier":"https://doi.org/10.3310/xeaz5341","description":"This article consists of a citation of a published article describing research funded by the Health and Social Care Delivery Research programme under project number 16/48/07, and is provided as as part of the complete record of research outputs for this project. The original publication is available at: https://doi.org/10.2196/47436\nBackground\nThe Healthier You National Health Service Digital Diabetes Prevention Programme (NHS-digital-DPP) is a 9-month digital behavior change intervention delivered by 4 independent providers that is implemented nationally across England. No studies have explored the design features included by service providers of digital diabetes prevention programs to promote engagement, and little is known about how participants of nationally implemented digital diabetes prevention programs such as this one make use of them.\n\nObjective\nThis study aimed to understand engagement with the NHS-digital-DPP. The specific objectives were to describe how engagement with the NHS-digital-DPP is promoted via design features and strategies and describe participants’ early engagement with the NHS-digital-DPP apps.\n\nMethods\nMixed methods were used. The qualitative study was a secondary analysis of documents detailing the NHS-digital-DPP intervention design and interviews with program developers (n=6). Data were deductively coded according to an established framework of engagement with digital health interventions. For the quantitative study, anonymous use data collected over 9 months for each provider representing participants’ first 30 days of use of the apps were obtained for participants enrolled in the NHS-digital-DPP. Use data fields were categorized into 4 intervention features (Track, Learn, Coach Interactions, and Peer Support). The amount of engagement with the intervention features was calculated for the entire cohort, and the differences between providers were explored statistically.\n\nResults\nData were available for 12,857 participants who enrolled in the NHS-digital-DPP during the data collection phase. Overall, 94.37% (12,133/12,857) of those enrolled engaged with the apps in the first 30 days. The median (IQR) number of days of use was 11 (2-25). Track features were engaged with the most (number of tracking events: median 46, IQR 3-22), and Peer Support features were the least engaged with, a median value of 0 (IQR 0-0). Differences in engagement with features were observed across providers. Qualitative findings offer explanations for the variations, including suggesting the importance of health coaches, reminders, and regular content updates to facilitate early engagement.\n\nConclusions\nAlmost all participants in the NHS-digital-DPP started using the apps. Differences across providers identified by the mixed methods analysis provide the opportunity to identify features that are important for engagement with digital health interventions and could inform the design of other digital behavior change interventions.\n\nFunding\nThis publication was funded by the Health and Social Care Delivery Research programme as a part of award number 16/48/07.\n\nDOI\nhttps://doi.org/10.2196/47436\nThis article reports on one component of the research award Evaluating the NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme (NHS DPP): the DIPLOMA research programme (Diabetes Prevention Long term Multimethod Assessment). For more information about this research please view the award page [https://fundingawards.nihr.ac.uk/award/16/48/07]\n","url":"https://innscience.ca/es/community/literature/doi_10_3310_xeaz5341"}