OBJECTIVE. To contribute to the development of a set of quality criteria for patient education and health professionals training that could be applied in European countries. METHODS. Literature review quality criteria, pre-selection based on a comparison of the criteria, peer group and expert based selection of the criteria. RESULTS. 14 quality criteria were selected: goals, rationale, target group, setting, scheduling of the education/training sessions, environmental requirements, qualification of the trainers/educators, core components of the educator/trainer's role, curriculum, education methods, education didactics, monitoring of the effectiveness and quality of the program, implementation level and source of funding. DISCUSSION. A set of preliminary quality criteria for patient education and health professionals training was developed, which could be applied in European countries.

AIM. To present the most common quality criteria in health promotion interventions in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). METHODS. A systematic literature search was conducted to identify review articles, health technology assessments and policy reports of evaluated health promotion interventions in T2DM. A descriptive analysis of study characteristics and evaluation criteria are presented. RESULTS. Seven studies met the inclusion criteria. The findings indicate that the most common health promotion interventions used in T2DM are initiatives targeting health care professionals. The main ambition of the programs was to increase the collaboration between health care professionals and patients, and between health care centres, program managers and community stakeholders. CONCLUSIONS. This investigation extends our knowledge of the most common health promotion interventions in T2DM and which structure, process and outcome measurements that are reported in such interventions. Future research could usefully explore how the effectiveness of multicomponent and complex interventions may be evaluated and extend the association of these factors into other settings and in relation to other lifestyle related chronic diseases.

OBJECTIVE. Type 2 diabetes can be efficiently prevented by lifestyle intervention provided for people at high diabetes risk. The aim of this paper was to conduct a literature search on existing quality indicators for type 2 diabetes prevention and to collate and present a set of indicators that could be applied in European countries with different health care systems and cultures. METHODS. Scientific and grey literature was searched for relevant studies using electronic databases. We also hand searched previous systematic reviews and reference lists of relevant articles. RESULTS. The only publication identified was the report presenting the results from the IMAGE project. The IMAGE indicators were used as the basis for the proposed indicators. CONCLUSIONS. Publications on quality indicators of diabetes prevention programmes are scarce. The quality indicators presented here are a first step toward the definition of a core set of European indicators to monitor and improve the quality of diabetes prevention.