Cost-effectiveness analysis of a school- and community-based intervention to promote a healthy lifestyle and prevent type 2 diabetes in vulnerable families across Europe: the Feel4Diabetes-study.

The Feel4Diabetes-study implemented a school- and community-based intervention to promote healthy lifestyle and prevent type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in six European countries. The intervention included a special focus on families at increased T2DM risk. The current study evaluates the intervention's cost-effectiveness. A Markov-type health economic model was developed to predict the incidence of T2DM and its complications. Incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (lifetime horizon, societal perspective) were calculated based on the overall intervention effect on health behaviour, and stratified for low- and high-risk families. Sensitivity analyses captured input parameters uncertainty. A budget impact analysis was performed. The increase in children's water consumption and physical activity led to a modest gain in quality adjusted life years (QALYs) at a low intervention cost and budget impact. Medical cost savings due to avoided illness could only be achieved on the very long-term (>30 years). The intervention in its entirety was cost-effective (more QALYs at a reasonable investment) in Belgium, Finland, Bulgaria, and Hungary, while being dominant (net savings and more QALYs) in Greece and Spain. Results were cost-effective for the low-risk families, who only received the school- and community-based intervention component. Results for the high-risk families were only cost-effective (with considerable uncertainty) in Greece and Spain, but not when the intervention would need to be repeated. The Feel4Diabetes-intervention is potentially cost-effective, especially in countries with a high overweight and obesity prevalence, at a limited budget impact. The incremental financial investments to reach and support high-risk families did not result in the hoped-for health benefits.

A systematic review of vitamin D status in southern European countries.

PURPOSE: Despite an acknowledged dearth of data on serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) concentrations from Southern European countries, inter-country comparison is hampered by inconsistent data reporting. The purpose of the current study was to conduct a systematic literature review of available data on serum 25(OH)D concentrations and estimate vitamin D status in Southern European and Eastern Mediterranean countries, both at a population level and within key population subgroups, stratified by age, sex, season and country. METHODS: A systematic review of the literature was conducted to identify and retrieve scientific articles reporting data on serum 25(OH)D concentration and/or vitamin D status following standard procedures. RESULTS: Data were extracted from 107 studies, stratified by sex and age group, representing 630,093 individuals. More than one-third of the studies reported mean 25(OH)D concentrations below 50 nmol/L and ~ 10% reported mean serum 25(OH)D concentrations below 25 nmol/L. Overall, females, neonates/ infants and adolescents had the higher prevalence of poor vitamin D status. As expected, there was considerable variability between studies. Specifically, mean 25(OH)D ranged from 6.0 (in Italian centenarians) to 158 nmol/L (in elderly Turkish men); the prevalence of serum 25(OH)D < 50 nmol/L ranged from 6.8 to 97.9% (in Italian neonates). CONCLUSIONS: Contrary to expectations, there was a high prevalence of low vitamin D status in the Southern Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean regions, despite abundant sunshine. These data further emphasize the need for strategies, such as fortification of foods with vitamin D and/or vitamin D supplementation, which will be tailored to the needs of specific population groups with higher risk of insufficiency or deficiency, to efficiently tackle the pandemic of hypovitaminosis D in Europe.

Postprandial glucose and insulin levels in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients after consumption of ready-to-eat mixed meals.

PURPOSE: To compare the effects of three ready-to-eat mixed meals, with a high fiber content and low glycemic index, on postprandial glycemic and insulinemic response in patients with Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). METHODS: The current study followed a prospective, three-way, cross-over design. Twenty-four patients with T2DM consumed three ready-to-eat mixed meals, i.e., "wild greens pie" (meal 1), "chicken burgers with boiled vegetables" (meal 2) and "vegetable moussaka" (meal 3) and an oral glucose load, all providing 50 g of carbohydrates. Venous blood was collected at 0, 30, 60, 90 and 120 min postprandial. Statistical analyses included repeated measures analysis of variance and calculations of the area under the glucose and insulin curves (AUC) for each one of the test meals and the oral glucose load. RESULTS: Patients consuming each one of the three mixed meals showed better postprandial glycemic responses compared to the oral glucose load (P < 0.001). Furthermore, patients consuming meal 3 showed a better insulinemic response compared to the oral glucose load and meal 1, after 60 and 120 min postprandial, respectively (P < 0.05). In addition, the increase observed in HOMA-IR values from T0 to T120 was significantly lower for meal 3, compared to the oral glucose load (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The three ready-to-eat mixed meals examined in the present study were found to elicit significantly lower glycemic responses compared to the oral glucose load in diabetic patients. The mixed meals examined in the present study could be proposed as effective, palatable and practical solutions for diabetics for glucose control.

Assessment of the Effectiveness of a Computerised Decision-Support Tool for Health Professionals for the Prevention and Treatment of Childhood Obesity. Results from a Randomised Controlled Trial.

We examined the effectiveness of a computerised decision-support tool (DST), designed for paediatric healthcare professionals, as a means to tackle childhood obesity. A randomised controlled trial was conducted with 65 families of 6⁻12-year old overweight or obese children. Paediatricians, paediatric endocrinologists and a dietitian in two children's hospitals implemented the intervention. The intervention group (IG) received personalised meal plans and lifestyle optimisation recommendations via the DST, while families in the control group (CG) received general recommendations. After three months of intervention, the IG had a significant change in dietary fibre and sucrose intake by 4.1 and -4.6 g/day, respectively. In addition, the IG significantly reduced consumption of sweets (i.e., chocolates and cakes) and salty snacks (i.e., potato chips) by -0.1 and -0.3 portions/day, respectively. Furthermore, the CG had a significant increase of body weight and waist circumference by 1.4 kg and 2.1 cm, respectively, while Body Mass Index (BMI) decreased only in the IG by -0.4 kg/m². However, the aforementioned findings did not differ significantly between study groups. In conclusion, these findings indicate the dynamics of the DST in supporting paediatric healthcare professionals to improve the effectiveness of care in modifying obesity-related behaviours. Further research is needed to confirm these findings.

Conceptual framework of a simplified multi-dimensional model presenting the environmental and personal determinants of cardiometabolic risk behaviors in childhood.

Clinical manifestations of cardiometabolic risk (CMR) may be set early in childhood due to unfavorable behaviors or lifestyle patterns related to diet and physical activity. Several factors may determine the adoption of such lifestyle-related behaviors, which researchers have tried to cluster under certain frameworks or models. In this context, the framework developed and proposed by this review gathers all the present knowledge regarding these determining factors to date and groups them into three main categories related to personal characteristics and the social and physical environment. Based on the proposed framework, a large variety of personal, social and physical environmental factors can positively or negatively influence CMR-related behaviors (either directly or indirectly via their interrelations), thus leading to decreased or increased risk, respectively. This framework could be of great value to public health policy makers and legislators for designing and implementing interventional programs tailored to the needs of susceptible population groups who are most in need for such initiatives. Targeting the correlates as potential determinants of CMR-related behaviors, and not just on the behaviors themselves, has been shown previously to be the most effective approach for tackling health issues related to CMR starting from early life stages.