Diabetes Self-Management Program

Minorities in the United States are disproportionately affected by Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2D), with African Americans being 50% -100% times more likely to develop the disease than Caucasians. T2D can be prevented by maintaining a healthy weight, healthy eating, and an active lifestyle. Yet, statistics determines difficulty to maintain stable Hemoglobin A 1 c (HbA 1 c) in patients with T2D. The purpose of this project is to develop an evidence-based program to improve self-management skills among patients with T2D, especially African Americans. The self-management program is using the Social Cognitive Theory to focus on goal settings, procedural knowledge, procedural selfefficacy, skill enhancement, and replacement methods. Patients will participate in group sessions and receive a number of resources. Further, participants are expected to monitor and track physical activity minutes, blood sugar levels, and their consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables. Eligibility criteria included the following: patients at a local community health center, 18 years and older, HbA 1 c score < 9, and no diagnosis of a life threatening disease. The pre-post design will be performed to assess the impact of the program at a local community health center. Pre-post measures for this study are procedural and content knowledge, self-efficacy, counter conditioning, and likelihoods of engaging in physical activity and eating vegetables and fruits as well as HbA 1 c scores. By the end of the program, participants will be able to identify exercise and nutritional tools to contribute to recommended hemoglobin A 1 C scores for a diabetes diagnosis.Master'sSchool of Health Professions and Studies: Health EducationUniversity of Michiganhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/137949/1/Roberts2016.pd