Facilitating Positive Health Behaviors and Well-being to Improve Health Outcomes: Standards of Care in Diabetes-Two Thousand Twenty-Six

Five. Facilitating Positive Health Behaviors and Well-being to Improve Health Outcomes: Standards of Care in Diabetes-Two Thousand Twenty-Six

The American Diabetes Association "Standards of Care in Diabetes" includes the ADA's current clinical practice recommendations and is intended to provide the components of diabetes care, general treatment goals and guidelines, and tools to evaluate quality of care. Members of the ADA Professional Practice Committee for Diabetes, an interprofessional expert committee, are responsible for updating the Standards of Care annually, or more frequently as warranted. For a detailed description of ADA standards, statements, and reports, as well as the evidence-grading system for ADA's clinical practice recommendations and a full list of Professional Practice Committee members, please refer to Introduction and Methodology. Readers who wish to comment on the Standards of Care are invited to do so at professional.diabetes.org/SOC.

Building positive health behaviors and maintaining psychological well-being are foundational for achieving diabetes management goals and maximizing quality of life. Essential to achieving these goals are diabetes self-management education and support, medical nutrition therapy, routine physical activity, adequate quality sleep, support for cessation of tobacco products and vaping, health behavior counseling, and psychosocial care. Following an initial comprehensive health evaluation (see section Four, "Comprehensive Medical Evaluation and Assessment of Comorbidities"), health care professionals should engage in person-centered collaborative care with people with diabetes. Person-centered collaborative care is guided by shared decision-making in treatment plan selection; facilitating access to medical, behavioral, psychosocial, educational, and technological resources and support; and shared monitoring of agreed-upon diabetes care plans and behavioral goals. Routine care evaluations should include assessments of medical and behavioral health outcomes, particularly during periods of changes in health and well-being.

DIABETES SELF-MANAGEMENT EDUCATION AND SUPPORT

Recommendations

Five point one. Advise all people with diabetes to participate in developmentally and culturally appropriate diabetes self-management education and support to facilitate informed decision-making, self-care behaviors, problem-solving, and active collaboration with the health care team. A

Five point two. Provide diabetes self-management education and support at diagnosis, annually and/or when not meeting treatment goals, when complicating factors develop (e.g., medical, functional, and psychosocial), and when transitions in life and care occur. E