BABYSTEPS
Babysteps is the first-of-its-kind digital health education developed specifically to help reduce the risk of developing type 2 daibetes for women with a history of gestational diabetes.
Hosted on the MyDESMOND digital health platform, the web-app has been found to be effective as part of a RCT (Khunti et al., 2023); at increasing participants’ daily step-count; reducing anxiety levels; and improving scores for both quality of life and confidence to exercise. It was also found to be highly cost-effective.
The Babysteps web-app has four key functions which can be used as much or as little as each user requires:
Activity and Health Trackers – this includes the ability for users to keep a record of the steps they have taken, or for these to be automatically populated from wearable devices (FitBit, GoogleFit and Garmin) which are then converted into charts of daily and weekly values. Babysteps users can then take part in weekday and weekend challenges with other users and will receive congratulatory awards when they hit agreed milestones. Plus, users can monitor other health outcomes such as weight, shape, blood glucose, blood pressure, and cholesterol.
Educational Content – A range of learning sessions are available on registration covering topics such as what being at risk of type 2 diabetes means, support for managing weight and healthy eating as well as key messages relating to being active and emotional wellbeing. Additionally, there are eight weekly booster sessions that cover topics such as balanced diet, standing more, healthy heart, strength training and keeping motivated. The educational content is made up of interviews and animations, quizzes, text, and imagery to help make the content as interactive and engaging as possible. Some key videos also have audio translations in Hindi, Bengali and Welsh.
Support – Babysteps users have four support mechanisms available to them within the Babysteps dashboard. Each depends on the type of support they need:
Chat forum – a busy forum where users can ask questions and network with other people like them,
Ask the Expert – any specific questions users want answering these are directed to the multidisciplinary team at the Leicester Diabetes Centre,
Technical support – should any user be struggling with anything technical to do with the programme, they have direct access to the dedicated support team during office hours, and
Buddies – all users have the option to add up to five friends and family members to join the programme with them.
Goal Setting – Users can use the inbuilt decision maker to help them set goals related to the key messages within the programme and will receive motivational messages to keep them on track. Plus, users can set goals within their trackers if they want to work on a specific health outcome.
To find out how to make Babysteps available where you are please email us on ldcimplementation@uhl-tr.nhs.uk