Date of Award

2018

Document Type

Project

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Committee Chair

Jeffrey Hamilton

Abstract

With the increasing prevalence and high cost of treatment, diabetes places an enormous demand on economic resources. To combat this issue and rising health care costs,Cleveland County Government took a proactive approach and partnered with its local YMCA. The YMCA was contracted to provide Prediabetes Prevention and Diabetes Control program classes to County employees. The programs were designed to (a) decrease the A1c level of program participants, (b) lower health care costs for the County, and (c) provide education about prevention and maintenance.

The ultimate goal of the program was to assist county administration and staff in their efforts to improve the quality and effectiveness of the program while also determining if the County needed to renew the 3-year contract. This evaluation focuses on the benefits of the program and the success of program participants based on biometric screening results and includes a review and analysis of survey data collected from program participants.

Results indicate that after the first year, the County saved approximately $550,000 in health care costs by offering the program. Biometric screening results for program participants significantly improved with 77 employees moving from a prediabetes range glucose to a normal range glucose and with 246 employees improving A1c (blood glucose) metrics from the previous year.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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