Rationale and design of the DP-TRANSFERS project: diabetes prevention-transferring findings from European research to society in Catalonia

Background Compelling evidence has been accumulated to support the effectiveness of intensive lifestyle intervention in delaying progression to Type 2 diabetes even in people identified as being at high risk determined by the Finnish diabetes risk score. The DE-PLAN-CAT project (diabetes in Europe-prevention using lifestyle, physical activity and nutritional intervention–Catalonia) evidenced that intensive lifestyle intervention was feasible and cost-effective on a short scale in real-life primary care settings, at least over 4 years. However, transferring such lifestyle interventions to society remains the major challenge of research in the field of diabetes prevention.