Taking cultural factors into account is useful in helping to manage diabetes

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

Culturally specific diabetes management is especially beneficial to low income patients.
Diabetes can lead to complications such as heart disease, blindness and nerve damage. Therefore it is a condition that requires careful long term management to keep blood glucose levels stable. This requires a good ongoing relationship between the patient and the healthcare professionals they are dealing with.

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego, now report upon Project Dulce, with aims to improve diabetes management among a group of nearly 4,000 low-income, underinsured Latino people. The clinical team involved a nurse or certified diabetes educator, an assistant and a dietitian who were bilingual and bicultural. The patients had an initial 50 minute visit and follow up sessions with the nurse, as well as a 25 minute session and follow up with the dietitian.

Participants also took part in group self-management training, led by trained peer educators who had diabetes themselves and were of the same cultural and ethnic group. The program led to clinically significant improvements in hemoglobin A1c - a measure of blood glucose control - blood pressure and low density lipoprotein (LDL or 'bad') cholesterol. All of these should help the participants avoid complications, so investment in such culturally specific programs for diabetes management is worthwhile.

Source
Health Services Research online February 2007

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