Face-to-face versus telephone delivery of the Green Prescription for Māori and New Zealand Europeans with type-2 diabetes mellitus : influence on participation and health outcomes

AIM: In Aotearoa/New Zealand, the proportion of Maori who participate in the national Green Prescription lifestyle programme is lower than for New Zealand Europeans. We compared the uptake and effectiveness of two modes of Green Prescription delivery: face-to-face and telephone among both Maori and New Zealand Europeans. METHOD: Sixty-eight Maori and 70 New Zealand Europeans with type-2 diabetes participated in this six-month randomised trial of the two modes of delivery. Recruitment integrated an explicitly Maori culturally sensitive approach. All participants received lifestyle intervention. Anthropometry, blood lipids and glycated haemoglobin were measured before and after the intervention. RESULTS: The face-to-face approach (first meeting) yielded 100% uptake into the programme among both Maori and New Zealand Europeans. At six months there were overall reductions in weight (1.8; [95 CI%, 0.6, 2.9kg]), waist circumference (3.7 [2.6, 4.8cm]), and total cholesterol (0.6 [0.3, 0.9mmol/l]) and glycated haemoglobin (3.1 [-0.2, 6.7mmol/mol]). There were no significant differences by mode of delivery, ethnicity or gender. CONCLUSION: The Green Prescription programme resulted in small but clinically favourable improvements in health outcomes for type-2 diabetes patients, regardless of the mode of delivery for both Maori and New Zealand Europeans.