Researchers axe diabetes prevention programme

A low-cost scheme to prevent Maori developing diabetes will be halted because of a price blow-out and the difficulty of changing people's eating and exercise habits.

Researchers ambitiously aimed to show diabetes could be prevented for an annual cost of $200 per person, but found the bill would be far higher.

An estimated 12 per cent of Maori have diabetes, three times the prevalence for the whole population.

More than 5000 Maori have been recruited into Te Wai O Rona: Diabetes Prevention Strategy since it began in 2004, making it the world's largest reported study on preventing type 2 diabetes, the researchers say.

It provides Waikato and central North Island Maori with diabetes screening and a range of strategies to prevent obesity - which can lead to diabetes - such as walking groups and advice on how to cook boil-ups with less fat, to read nutrition labels and reduce sugar intake from drinks.

With so many enrolled, it was hoped the programme could quickly show its effectiveness.

Last year lead researcher Professor David Simmons, of Auckland University's Waikato Clinical School, said: "We now have a statistically valid sample to be able to demonstrate a 35 per cent reduction in new cases of type 2 diabetes over four years."

But the head of the programme, Professor Des Gorman, confirmed yesterday that it would now finish at the end of this year. That was when its three years of funding would end, although he acknowledged it had been intended to extend the scheme.

"We're not abandoning it. We've found out that it's not possible to address this complex problem in such a cheap way."

It would cost much more than $200, but he was unable to say how much more because if it was to be delivered as a large-scale intervention "we would do it in a different way".

"If you are looking at a research project, what's needed here is anthropology, not a medical study, because the issue with regard to obesity and Maori is ... around the central nature of food to the culture," said Professor Gorman.

"Food is pivotal to that culture and you can tell the importance of an occasion or the importance of a person by looking at the food available."