Education: A Proven Path to Better Health and Wellbeing
X-PERT Health’s education programmes are changing lives and tackling the UK’s diabetes crisis head-on.
“Education is the cornerstone of diabetes care,” said Trudi Deakin, CEO at X-PERT Health. “This audit underscores the life-changing impact of structured education, which not only improves health outcomes but also alleviates pressure on the healthcare system.”
Millions in the UK are affected by type 2 diabetes or are at risk, facing serious physical and mental health challenges. We at X-PERT Health, a registered charity and a leader in diabetes education aligned with National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines, are transforming lives by empowering over half a million people with the knowledge and tools to effectively manage their condition.
Key Findings from the 2024 X-PERT Health Audit
Health Improvements: Participants saw significant improvements in their health.
Blood Glucose Control: A reduction of 10.1 mmol/mol in HbA1c within six months.
Medication Reduction: More than 50% of participants reduced or stopped their diabetes medication after six months.
Comprehensive Health Benefits: Reductions in body weight, BMI, waist circumference, blood pressure, cholesterol ratios, and triglyceride levels.
Increased Empowerment: A 19.9% increase in participant empowerment scores.
Audit Success: 2024 outcomes met or exceeded all benchmarks from the original X-PERT clinical trial.
Notable Outcomes of the Audit Report 2024
All of the programme level results for the 2024 audit report were better than those in 2023, including number of programmes, number of participants registered, number of completers, percentage who completed a programme, mean evaluation score, and improvements in empowerment.
68.4% of participants were white, compared to 82% of people in England Wales in the most recent census. This suggests organisations delivering X-PERT programmes are effectively engaging ethnic minority groups. This is important, as individuals from these groups have an increased risk of type 2 diabetes and the complications associated with it.
Although the majority of participants (63.4%) were newly diagnosed, 851 people who attended a programme (15%) had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes more than 10 years ago. This is important, as X-PERT believe that good quality education, and suitable lifestyle changes, can be helpful for everyone with type 2 diabetes, no matter how long they have had it for.
HbA1c improvements in 2024 were similar to those in 2023, but more data were available for analyses. This means this years results can be considered to be more robust.
An 11mmol/mol reduction in HbA1c has previously been associated with a 21% decrease in the risk of diabetes-related complication and in the risk of deaths related to diabetes. Approximately one in every three X-PERT participants achieved a reduction in HbA1c of at least this size at both 6 months and 12 months.
As the majority of participants (78.2%) did not increase their need for diabetes medication, the clinically meaningful reductions seen for HbA1c are likely due to lifestyle changes, rather than pharmaceutical interventions. Audits of other programmes often do not report on medication usage, which makes the cause of any potential benefits difficult to assess.
If the 522 participants who were recorded as having been able to omit diabetes medication after 6 months are able to maintain this, the NHS would save an estimated £233,856 per year in reduced expenditure on drugs for them. Further savings would be expected for those who reduce medication needs but without completely omitting them.
It is estimated that between 4.9% and 31.6% of X-PERT participants achieved remission of type 2 diabetes by 6 months during the current audit period.
There was little difference in outcomes between face-to-face programmes and remote group programmes (delivered using video conferencing software such as Teams or Zoom), though where there were differences they actually suggest that remote programmes may be more effective. This is notable, as most of the available evidence in the published literature is for face-to-face interventions.
The X-PERT Health Audit 2024 reveals compelling evidence of the positive impact of its diabetes management and wellbeing programmes. The full results are available here.
