A Church-Based, Self-Management Intervention for Mexican-Americans with Diabetes

描述（由申请人提供）：我的长期研究目标是成为一名受全国尊重的、独立的、以社区为基础的研究人员，特别关注使用基于信仰的干预措施来减少拉丁美洲人之间的糖尿病差异。糖尿病是一种非常普遍和病态的疾病，影响着美国的拉丁美洲人，尤其是墨西哥裔美国人。许多以教会为基础的干预措施显示出改善少数民族人口健康状况的希望；但关于教会对拉丁裔人口干预的数据很少。考虑到教堂是拉丁裔家庭和文化的中心，以教堂为基础的干预措施有望对这一人口产生巨大影响。据我们所知，没有其他的研究集中在为拉丁裔糖尿病患者设计基于教会的干预措施上。到目前为止，我的研究已经让我在成为一名独立学术研究者的道路上实现了许多短期目标。在职业发展奖的支持下，我将有机会提高我在社区研究方法和设计干预措施方面的技能，以解决拉丁裔社区的健康差距和促进变革。在接下来的五年里，我有以下的短期目标，我将在这个提案中重点关注：1)获得更多的研究培训和技能；2)评估当地医疗保健提供者在联系教会糖尿病自我管理干预方面的促进因素和障碍；3)与宗教机构和地方医疗机构合作，设计以教会为基础、文化适宜的患者干预措施，以提高拉丁裔糖尿病患者的自我管理；4)在拉美裔糖尿病患者中开展干预试点，以改善其糖尿病预后。考虑到拉美裔人口的增长和他们不成比例的慢性疾病负担，开发基于社区的项目并将这些项目与当地医疗保健系统联系起来，对于减少拉美裔人之间的健康差距至关重要，并有望对该社区的糖尿病结局产生重大影响。在K23奖的支持下，我可以提高我在社区研究方面的技能，并朝着我的目标努力，成为一名独立的学术研究人员，擅长通过基于信仰的干预措施，应用基于社区的方法来减少拉丁裔糖尿病患者的差异。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): My long-term research objective is to become a nationally respected, independent community-based researcher, with a specific focus on using faith-based interventions to reduce diabetes disparities among Latinos. Diabetes is a very prevalent and morbid condition affecting Latinos, especially Mexican-Americans in the United States. Many church-based interventions have shown promise improving health outcomes among minority populations; but data on church-based interventions for Latino populations is scarce. Considering that the church is a center of Latino family and culture, interventions based in churches has promise to have great impact on this population. To our knowledge, no other studies have focused on designing church-based interventions for Latinos with diabetes. My research to date has already allowed me accomplish many of my short-term objectives in my path to becoming an independent academic researcher. With the support from the career development award, I will have the opportunity to refine my skills in community-based research methods and design interventions to tackle health disparities and foster change in Latino communities. I have the following short-term goals over the next five years that I will focus on in this proposal: 1) To gain additional research training and skills; 2) To assess the facilitators and barriers of local healthcare providers in linking to church-based diabetes, self-management interventions; 3) To design a church-based, culturally-appropriate patient intervention in partnership with faith-based institutions and local healthcare institutions to increase self- management of Latino patients with diabetes; 4) To pilot the intervention among Latinos with diabetes with the goal of improving their diabetes outcomes. Considering the growth of the Hispanic population and their disproportionate burden of chronic diseases, developing community based programming and linking these programs to the local healthcare system is crucial to decrease the health disparities among Latinos and has promise to have a high impact on diabetes outcomes on this community. With support from the K23 award, I can improve my skills in community based research and work towards my goal of becoming an independent academic researcher with an expertise in applying community based methods in decreasing Latino disparities in diabetes through faith-based interventions. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: My long-term research objective is to become a nationally respected, independent community-based researcher, with a specific focus on using faith-based interventions to reduce diabetes disparities among Latinos. Considering that the church is a center of Latino family and culture, interventions based in churches have promise for great impact in this population. To our knowledge, no other studies have focused on designing church-based interventions for Latinos with diabetes. Considering the growth of the Hispanic population and their disproportionate burden of chronic diseases, developing programming to decrease the health disparities affecting this population is crucial. My research to date has already allowed me accomplish many of my short-term objectives in my path to becoming an independent academic researcher. With the support from the career development award, I will have the opportunity to refine my skills in community-based research methods and design interventions to tackle health disparities and foster change in Latino communities.