"Living well with diabetes": evaluation of a pilot program to promote diabetes prevention and self-management in a medically underserved community

Abstract

A substantial disparity exists in the prevalence and effective self-management of diabetes among African Americans in the United States. Community-level programs have the potential to affect self-efficacy and may be helpful in overcoming common barriers to self-management. The Neighborhood Health Talker Program used community members trained as cultural health brokers to engage their communities in conversations about "living diabetes well." Program evaluators used mixed methods to analyze post-conversation surveys and Health Talker field notes. These indicated an increase in diabetes-related knowledge and increased confidence among conversation participants. Conversations included discussion of barriers and facilitators to lifestyle changes and effective self-management that are frequently overlooked in a clinical setting.

Figure 1.

Community conversation respondents’ perceptions of conversation impact on diabetes knowledge and confidence (scale of 1–5).

Figure 2.

Diabetes knowledge and confidence (1 or 2 on a 5-point scale) by personal experience with diabetes (n = 195).