Diabetes talks: Diabetes support groups at a community clinic

Background: This project is a partnership between the University of Arizona, Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health and St. Elizabeth of Hungry Clinic. St. Elizabeth of Hungary Clinic is a community clinic that services the “notch” group population and medically underserved minority populations in areas around Tucson, Arizona. The notch group is made up of working poor people who cannot afford medical insurance or do not qualify for government heath care coverage. There is a majority population of Hispanic patients at the clinic of approximately 60%.

Purpose: To assess the effectiveness of diabetes support groups offered to patients once a month for three months that take into consideration language preference (Spanish and English)and health literacy.

Methods: The study design used is prospective, quasi-experimental design, randomized, pre-post comparison, and time series. Attendance, demographic, self-efficacy, HbA1c blood sugar level and patient satisfaction are the independent variables observed in this project. The support group participants are the dependent variable observed.

Results: Research questions that this project will report about are: 1) is there a change in the patient's diabetes self-efficacy? 2) will patients feel that the support groups are effective? and 3) how many of the support group session will a patient be able to attend? 4.) will the patients attend their quarterly visits at the clinic and if so will their blood sugar (HbA1c) have any significant change after being part of the support group? Furthermore, this project will report about future diabetes support group intervention recommendations.