Is Demographic Concordance Between Lifestyle Coach and Participant Associated With Participant Retention and Weight Change in the National Diabetes Prevention Program Lifestyle Change Intervention?

Objective The goal of this study is to explore the association between racial/ethnic, sex, and age category concordance and participant retention and weight loss among participants enrolled in the National Diabetes Prevention Program lifestyle change program (National DPP LCP). Methods This analysis was conducted using a sample of 653 participants who were enrolled in a 12‐month National DPP LCP at one of 17 Chicago community‐based organizations between June 2019 and July 2023. Using multilevel logistic regression modeling, we examined the association between participant lifestyle–coach racial/ethnic, sex, and age category concordance and retention, as well as weight loss. All models controlled for coach education, coach training, program‐engagement level, as well as participant education, sex, age, and race/ethnicity if not already accounted for in the concordance variable. Results In adjusted models, we observed a statistically significant relationship between race/ethnic concordance and increased odds of retention. There was no significant relationship between demographic concordance and weight change > = 3 % . Conclusions Our findings suggest that there is increased odds of retention among racially concordant pairs. We did not observe a significant relationship between gender and age concordant pairs and retention nor race, gender, and age concordant pairs and weight loss. Our findings suggest that National DPP LCP programs could consider racial concordance in their program design and implementation as a factor to boost participant retention.