The Diabetes Community Exercise Programme ( DCEP ) is an inter-professional, coordinated, patient-centred, whānau-supported package of care specifically developed to target Māori and Pacific people and those living in low socioeconomic areas.
Partnership – Rangapū | Acceptance - Manakohanga | Compassion - Aroha
Our research study has now ended. See below feedback from the trial.
DCEP combines twice weekly education with tailored exercise for 12 weeks, followed by an ongoing twice weekly maintenance exercise class.
An inter-professional health team (physiotherapist, long-term condition nurse specialist, dietitians, pharmacists, podiatrists) provide a culturally safe and supportive environment to optimise exercise participation and self-management skills.
Funding support
This project is funded by a Health Research Council ( HRC ) project grant. "Community exercise for long-term management of diabetes and multimorbidity"
Primary investigator: Professor Leigh Hale (School of Physiotherapy)
What did we learn from the research?
Our summary presentation 22 March 2022
No mirrors, no lycra, no judgement: the DCEP Trial
Chris Higgs and Leigh Hale
The presentation provides an overview of the completed HRC funded multi-site, RCT, with nested qualitative and process evaluation trial.
Our publications
We are really happy to have published about the DCEP study in a number of research journals. This helps us to share our research with academics and clinicians around the world with the goal of helping to inform changes to clinical practice, the training of future clinicians, and to support further research in into supporting people living with Diabetes and other long term conditions.
Hale, L., Higgs, C., Gray, A. R., Mann, J., Mani, R., Sullivan, T., Terry, J., Keen, D., & Stokes, T. (2022). The diabetes community exercise programme plus usual care versus usual care in patients with type 2 diabetes: A randomised, two-arm, parallel open-label trial. eClinicalMedicine, 46, 101361. doi: 10.1016/j. eclinm.2022.101361
Stokes, T., Wilkinson, A., Jayakaran, P., Higgs, C., Keen, D., Mani, R., Sullivan, T., Gray, A. R., Doolan-Noble, F., Mann, J., & Hale, L. (2022). Implementation of the Diabetes Community Exercise and Education Programme (DCEP) for the management of type 2 diabetes: Qualitative process evaluation. BMJ Open, 12(5), e059853. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-059853
Hale, L., Higgs, C., Keen, D., & Smith, C. (2021). Long term exercise engagement of adults living with type two diabetes is enhanced by a person-centred care approach delivered by knowledgeable, well trained health care professionals. Frontiers in Rehabilitation Sciences, 2, 692311. doi: 10.3389/fresc.2021.692311
Hale, L., Stokes, T., Scarth, B., Mani, R., Sullivan, T., Doolan-Noble, F., Jayakaran, P., Gray, A. R., Mann, J., & Higgs, C. (2019). Protocol for a randomised controlled trial to evaluate the effectiveness of the diabetes community exercise and education programme (DCEP) for long-term management of diabetes. BMJ Open, 9(2), e025578. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2018-025578