ROI in Diabetes Prevention: Moving Beyond Weight Loss
As employers assess the ROI of diabetes prevention programs, new analysis shows that focusing on weight loss may be obscuring the real sources of value.
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As employers assess the ROI of diabetes prevention programs, new analysis shows that focusing on weight loss may be obscuring the real sources of value.
Success in virtual programs aimed at prediabetes—which combine the always-on utility of mobile apps with human coaching—is often graded on a sliding scale, pound by pound. They have become a go-to wellness intervention for employers who are spending billions of dollars each year in medical expenses and seeing productivity losses due to diabetes.
Just as doctors monitor patients’ weight fluctuations as a key factor in assessing diabetes risk, companies that administer diabetes prevention programs for employees look to weight-loss metrics as a key indicator of their return on investment (ROI). Simply put, weight loss is the clinical outcome most businesses evaluate in order to gauge the value of the program.
"What we found is that weight loss is an incomplete and actually insufficient measure of health in diabetes prevention. We need to be looking at more holistic measures that tell a fuller story."
-Ryan Quan, director of data science and co-founder of the Omada Insights Lab.
New analysis shows that weight loss may be too narrow a lens for evaluating ROI. An analysis conducted by Omada Insights Lab—with data supplied by Cigna, correlated employers’ savings based on claims data as well as data on behavioral outcomes from Omada’s program. The analysis found that the Omada program—which leverages behavior-change science to design personalized programs with human coaching, peer support and daily goalsetting — led to net savings in employer spending, not only for members who lost weight, but for many who maintained or gained weight.
In fact, more surprisingly, the analysis revealed that behavior-based interventions (such as daily goal-setting, coaching and community support) are more directly correlated to improved health outcomes (such as better diet, positive self-image and reduced spending) than weight loss.
"With this research, we can start to understand what is actually happening in the day-to-day lives of people trying to make a change in their health and design more effective interventions to help them achieve their goals,"
-Ryan Quan, director of data science and co-founder of the Omada Insights Lab.