Low Carb Program

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Low Carb Program

5th March 2019

Digital behaviour change platform for people with type 2 diabetes providing goal-focused education, personalised resources and support to implement a lower carbohydrate lifestyle.

“My HbA1c has gone down from 53 (7.0%) to 37 mmol/mol (5.5%) and I’ve lost about 19kg in total. I am in type 2 remission and have never been fitter. If it wasn’t for the Low Carb Program and the support I received, I wouldn’t be where I am today.”
Peter Palmer, Patient

Summary:

The Low Carb Program is available on iOS, Android and web.

The platform comprises:

Education: members participate in a core 12-week structured therapeutic nutrition and wellness program, personalised to disease type and profile
Community peer support with over 390,000 members
Behaviour change mentoring, goal identification and setting
Library of personalised resources, including culturally-specific meal plans, food swaps and recipe ideas
Data insights and AI-led feedback to support sustainable behaviour change

Challenge/problem identified:

Type 2 diabetes is prevalent, costly and a potentially progressive disease with serious health consequences, including blindness, amputation, stroke, dementia and
premature death. In community settings, type 2 diabetes is rarely reversed, and typically patients only spend three hours per year with their healthcare professional.

Researchers agree that type 2 diabetes may be effectively treated with a carbohydrate-reduced diet, which could improve management and potentially lead to remission.

Digital interventions can support retention of continued education, which is the fundamental challenge to ensure sustainable behaviour change in patients with type 2 diabetes and prediabetes in a low-cost, scalable manner.

Impact:

71% platform retention at one-year
40% of people on medication eliminate at least one treatment from their regime
60% of people on insulin eliminate or reduce it from their regime

For people with type 2 diabetes who complete the programme, outcomes include:

7.4kg weight loss
13mmol/mol HbA1c reduction
39% place HbA1c under type 2 diabetes threshold, with 26% placing type 2 diabetes in remission

*One-year outcomes published as part of a three-year study on a randomly selected cohort of 1,000 people who joined the Low Carb Program: https://diabetes.jmir.org/2018/3/e12/

Download a list of supporting evidence here.

Low Carb Program Implementation Toolkit 2019

Fellow: Arjun Panesar