Costs of a Self-Selected, Health-Promoting Diet Among the Participants of the Finnish Diabetes Prevention Study
- Anne-Mari Ottelin, MSC1,
- Jaana Lindström, PHD2,
- Markku Peltonen, PHD2,
- Janne Martikainen, MSC3,
- Matti Uusitupa, MD, PHD1,
- Helena Gylling, MD, PHD14,
- Kaisa Poutanen, DTECH15,
- Anne Louheranta, PHD4,
- Marjo Mannelin, MSC67,
- Merja Paturi, MSC2,
- Virpi Salminen, MSC8,
- Jaakko Tuomilehto, MD, PHD29 and
- on behalf of the Finnish Diabetes Prevention Study Group
- 1Department of Public Health and Clinical Nutrition, Food and Health Research Centre, University of Kuopio, Kuopio, Finland
- 2Diabetes and Genetic Epidemiology Unit, Department of Epidemiology and Health Promotion, National Public Health Institute, Helsinki, Finland
- 3Centre for Pharmaceutical Policy and Economics, University of Kuopio, Kuopio, Finland
- 4Kuopio University Hospital, Kuopio, Finland
- 5VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Espoo, Finland
- 6Department of Sports Medicine, University Hospital, Oulu, Finland
- 7Oulu Deaconess Institute, Oulu, Finland
- 8City of Tampere Social Services and Health Care, Tampere, Finland
- 9Department of Public Health, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
- Address correspondence and reprint requests to Anne-Mari Ottelin, Food and Health Research Centre, University of Kuopio, P.O. Box 1627, FIN-70211 Kuopio, Finland. E-mail: anne-mari.ottelin{at}uku.fi
Several studies have shown that lifestyle changes including weight reduction, increased physical activity, and dietary modification are effective in preventing the development of type 2 diabetes (1–4). However, various barriers are known to interfere with the adoption of a healthier lifestyle. One such barrier is diet costs (5). A few studies have explored the relationship between the quality and costs of diets (6–13), and the results are conflicting. Observational studies (6–10) suggest that a healthy diet costs more, whereas intervention studies (11–13) suggest that a healthy diet is not more expensive than a less healthy diet. The aim of this study was to discover whether adopting a diet composed in line with the current nutrition recommendations (14) affects diet costs. The changes in the costs of a self-selected diet among participants in the Finnish Diabetes Prevention Study (DPS) were studied. The diet costs were compared between the control group and intervention group receiving intensive dietary and exercise counseling. Furthermore, the associations between background variables, diet quality determinants, and diet cost were analyzed.
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—
The DPS was a randomized, controlled trial showing that an intensive lifestyle modification program including dietary and physical exercise counseling is highly effective in decreasing the risk of diabetes in high-risk subjects. The study design, subjects, inclusion and exclusion criteria, and intervention program have been previously …
