Diabetes Education, Specialty Care, and Self-Care Advice among Obese African American Women with Type 2 Diabetes

Objective: Healthy People 2020 (HP2020) includes benchmarks for diabetes management. The objective of our study was to describe diabetes management among African American women, a patient group that carries a disproportionate diabetes burden.

Participants: African American women with type 2 diabetes enrolled in dietary and weight management interventions.

Main outcome measures: Self-report assessments of diabetes education, specialty care, self-care behaviors and advice. Associations between diabetes self-care behaviors and diabetes advice using Chi-square tests.

Results: Among 96 participants (age = 53 ± 9.4; BMI = 37.9 ± 7.3 kg/m(2)), reported diabetes education and foot exams were lower than HP2020 benchmarks, 48.9% vs 62.5% and 35.1% vs 74.8%, respectively and higher for dilated eye exams (70.1% vs 58.7%). The most frequently reported dietary advice was to increase fruit/vegetable intake (58%) and approximately 50% reported physical activity advice. Receiving no exercise advice was associated with greater odds of little or no physical activity (OR = 3.38) and planned exercises (OR = 2.65).

Conclusions: Receipt of diabetes education and some specialty care were below national benchmarks while health care provider advice influenced patient self-care behaviors. Increasing diabetes education and specialty care should be included within existing efforts to address the excess diabetes burden experienced by African American women. Longitudinal studies exploring the relationship between health care provider advice and self-care behaviors are needed.