Grant: Doctoral: Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a significant health problem in Canada, with an estimated 2.5 million Canadians to be affected by 2016. Fortunately, T2DM has been shown to be treatable through lifestyle changes. Whereas current research and clinical practice is often disease-focused and usually only implements one intervention, I propose to evaluate the effectiveness of a comprehensive, patient-centered, multidisciplinary intervention on patients aged 40-65 with type II diabetes. The intervention will be twelve months in duration, and include exercise, nutritional, psychological, and educational components. As a successful program of this nature was developed at the University of Cape Town and shown to be effective in a South African context, this study will determine the efficacy of a similar intervention in a Canadian setting. The International Olympic Committee released a consensus statement on the prevention and management of non-communicable diseases, and encouraged the development of integrated lifestyle interventions as crucial to prevent and treat these illnesses. By comparing improvements in diabetes-related health outcomes in subjects who completed such a comprehensive intervention with those who received usual care alone, we may demonstrate the effectiveness of such an approach in a key chronic disease, encouraging future research into these interventions.