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Phone calls can help diabetics develop healthy lifestyle habits

Category: Diabetes

When medical professionals provide phone calls to diabetics to offer lifestyle counseling, it leads to much better disease management and improved blood test scores, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Public Health.

While doctors commonly recommend eating a healthy diet and getting plenty of exercise to their diabetic patients, it can be difficult for individuals to follow through on this advice once they leave the doctor's office. However, healthy lifestyles can make a major difference in disease management.

For the study, researchers from the University of California, San Francisco enrolled 230 diabetics into a phone counseling program. Half the group received specific dietary recommendations while the other half was given generalized lifestyle tips.

The results showed that the participants who were given the more general information tended to lose more weight, eat more fruits and vegetables and show better improvement in cholesterol scores than those in the dietary intervention group.

Findings from the study could be used to develop simple and inexpensive lifestyle management programs that help individuals better control their diabetes.