We used the RE-AIM (Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation and Maintenance) framework to evaluate the program with our protocol and outcomes paper published.
Women with a pre-pregnancy BMI of 25 or over had stronger intentions to manage their GWG, however, they experienced greater barriers and lower confidence to overcome these barriers than women classified as a healthy weight.
Compared to pre-implementation we had a 105 increase in women eligible, that were referred to the program.
We used hospital costings data to evaluate the cost effectiveness of the program compared to standard care in preventing gestational diabetes. The Living Well program was dominant over routine care in reducing GDM and supports broad reach delivery of structured interventions during pregnancy to lower the short-term costs associated with GDM to the health system.
While the program demonstrated benefits to those who engaged, around half of those referred did not take up or complete the program. Those women were invited to tell us their experiences to inform the future development to meet the needs of more women. Nine women were interviewed and transcripts thematically analysed.