Purpose

The purpose of this study was to estimate the benefit of using a cultural characteristics scale to help diabetes educators understand how African Americans cope with diabetes. Illness representations are influenced by cul-ture. Race and ethnicity as a proxy for culture provides an incomplete understanding of the mechanism by which cultural values influence representations of diabetes. Methods A descriptive correlational design was employed by recruiting hospitalized adults with type 2 diabetes at 3 metropolitan northeast coast sites. The TRIOS Afrocentric cultural characteristics measure and the Illness Perception Questionnaire were administered by paper-and-pencil to a diverse sample. Black race and African American eth-nicity was used as a proxy for culture and compared t