Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #105039

Gina M. Piane, DrPH, CHES, Health Science Department, California State University, Long Beach, 1250 Bellflower Blvd., Long Beach, CA 90840, 5629852137, gpiane@csulb.edu, Mercedes Guilliaum, MPH/MSN, CDE, Health Sciences, California State University Long Beach, 1250 Bellflower Blvd., Long Beach, CA 90840, and Alan M. Safer, PhD, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, California State University, Long Beach, 1250 Bellflower Blvd., Long Beach, CA 90840.

The Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) demonstrated that an intensive clinic-based lifestyle intervention focused on weight loss; through healthy eating and increased physical activity, had a very powerful impact in the prevention of type 2 diabetes in a clinical sample. To have a greater public health impact, the current study takes prevention from the clinic to the campus community by focusing on a broader risk group and evaluating an intervention based on the successful DPP lifestyle intervention.

The Students as Bridges to the Community (SBC) model conducts primary prevention of type 2 Diabetes both on campus and connected communities by training Health Science students as “promotores”. These students develop mass media campaigns, presentations to student organizations and written screenings. Those identified as high risk on the written screenings will be referred to the Student Health Service for a blood test. The “promotores' will coach the identified pre-diabetics through weight reduction and exercise programs.

The risk messages that are developed for the campus community will also include information that can benefit the families and friends of students. The students act as “bridges' of the risk messages and are able to tailor the messages for their own particular families and cultural communities.

Learning Objectives: By the end of the presentation participants will be able to

• Identify a process for delivering health education to diverse communities using college students as conduits of information.
• Recognize the efficiency of using college students to deliver culturally sensitive health education.
• Explain how type 2 diabetes can be prevented in communities through this intervention.

Keywords: Community Education, College Students

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.