Research Description
Background: Diabetes is a growing problem in rural communities, including Appalachian Kentucky. In some Appalachia, 2 out of 10 individuals have type 2 diabetes, which is higher than the national average. Also, in Kentucky, obesity rates are among the highest in the nation with approximately 3 out of 10 of adults classified as obese, 1 out of 10 meet physical activity recommendations, and maybe 4 out of 100 people meet fruit and vegetable consumption recommendations. Supporting Rationale: With an estimated 5.9 million intergenerational families nationwide, it is imperative to understand how this family structure impacts the health of its members. Intergenerational families are of particular interest in rural areas since families strongly influence cultural health beliefs and behaviors. Family-centered programs have a reputation for having positive, health-promoting benefits on nutrition and health outcomes. The proposed study will assess community resources via social network analysis and develop a tailored nutrition and physical activity plan for rural residents, by using Cooperative Extension Service and community educators. The goal of this study is to use family units as support to promote nutrition and physical activity. Specific Aims: Aim 1: Ask participants to tell us about their access to food sources and places in the community to engage in physical activity. Aim 2: Develop a nutrition and physical activity plan for participants and their families to use for 6 months. Aim 3: Determine if the nutrition and physical activity plan helped improve blood sugar and weight.Research Profile
What area of diabetes research does your project cover? What role will this particular project play in preventing, treating and/or curing diabetes?This award is focused on managing type 2 diabetes and addressing obesity within families. To achieve this goal, we will provide tailored nutrition therapy to provide knowledge on practical ways to eat healthy based on family resources as well as physical activity. For this study, the goal is to engage all individuals in a home (adolescents: 10-17 years; adults: 18 years+) to support one another toward improved health outcomes related to type 2 diabetes and obesity.
If a person with diabetes were to ask you how your project will help them in the future, how would you respond?My hope is that this award would not only help and individual but families that make up our communities. We know that type 2 diabetes is mostly preventable and that being overweight or obese is a risk factor for type 2 diabetes. I think that equipped with this knowledge and the social support that can be leveraged by family participation in an intervention, we can change how people think about type 2 diabetes. At some point cultural health beliefs have to be addressed and one way to do that is to start in the home/family unit to empower, provide practical knowledge, and promote self-efficacy.
Why important for you, personally, to become involved in diabetes research? What role will this award play?The burden of cardiometablic disorders, particularly type 2 diabetes and obesity, in rural Appalachia Kentucky is alarming. In addition, families in rural Appalachia have been disproportionately impacted over time and through generations. My hope for this award is to provide a program that can break the generational burden of type 2 diabetes and obesity as well as provide hope and empower families to change the course of their health and wellbeing.
In what direction do you see the future of diabetes research going?For the population that I serve, I see diabetes research addressing social determinants of health that impact risk, prevention, and management of type 2 diabetes. There are community-based components to addressing social determinants of health, including family and intergenerational approaches, as well as opportunities to identify and address policies that facilitate systemic and structural inequalities that directly or indirectly facilitate cardiometablic health inequities in certain populations.