Best practices for increasing dietary self-monitoring among getting people in sync (GPS) prediabetes program participants

Issues:  Seventy-nine million adults in the United States have prediabetes.  To prevent the onset of type II diabetes, individuals with prediabetes are recommended to lose 5-7% of their body weight.  Studies have provided evidence that dietary self-monitoring significantly improves weight loss.  Current literature lacks adequate research on weight loss and dietary self-monitoring among African Americans with prediabetes. Description:  The Getting People in Sync (GPS) Prediabetes Program is a 16-week a faith-placed community-based participatory research study which focuses on lifestyle behavior change.  GPS aims to determine the effectiveness of social support on weight loss, while this study seeks to identify best practices for increasing dietary self-monitoring among program participants.  Participants (n=86) were recruited from African Americans churches in Philadelphia across two phases.  Seven-day food trackers were distributed each week and collected at weeks 2, 8, 15 and 16.  Perspectives on dietary self-monitoring were gleaned from audio-recorded GPS sessions and facilitator trainings.  Lessons Learned:  Dietary self-monitoring is essential to weight loss.  Best practices for increasing dietary self-monitoring among GPS participants included:  1) training facilitators to teach participants how to adequately track their diet; 2) designing a hands-on dietary self-monitoring activity for participants; 3) emphasizing dietary self-monitoring at each GPS session.  Recommendations:  A survey should be created to measure dietary self-monitoring attitudes, behaviors, and barriers.  A dietary self-monitoring factsheet needs to be devised for participants.  These efforts can be used to improve food tracking education, consistency and weight loss outcomes among participants.