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Diabetes Self-Management Activities for Latinos Living in Non-metropolitan Rural Communities: A Snapshot of an Underserved Rural State

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Abstract

The Latino community continues to grow in the rural Midwest, and diabetes is a pertinent disease for research in this demographic. Patient self-management is an important aspect of comprehensive care for diabetes and may mitigate complications. A cross-sectional survey assessed various activities including self-monitoring of blood glucose, personal foot inspection, diet adherence, and diabetes self-management education. Less than half of the sample performed self-monitoring of blood glucose daily (40 %), adhered strictly to special diabetes diet recommendations (44 %), or attended a diabetes self-management education class (48 %). Participants advised on personal foot inspection were three times more likely to perform the self-care activity. Improvements are indicated in these self-management activities. Further research is needed to discern disparities and barriers in self-monitoring of blood glucose among this target population. An increased emphasis on enrollment in diabetes self-management classes should target foreign-born Latinos with lower levels of education.

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Acknowledgments

The researchers express sincere gratitude to all the participants for their time during interviews. We also thank Lien Diep for her help with statistical analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Section for International Health, Institute of Health and Society, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1130, Blindern, 0317, Oslo, Norway

    Daniel Sadowski & Akhtar Hussain

  2. Iowa Center on Health Disparities, University of Northern Iowa, 107 Human Performance Center, Cedar Falls, IA, 50614-0245, USA

    Michele Devlin

  3. 741 Edwards Avenue, La Salle, IL, 61301, USA

    Daniel Sadowski

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  1. Daniel Sadowski
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  2. Michele Devlin
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Correspondence to Daniel Sadowski.

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Sadowski, D., Devlin, M. & Hussain, A. Diabetes Self-Management Activities for Latinos Living in Non-metropolitan Rural Communities: A Snapshot of an Underserved Rural State. J Immigrant Minority Health 14, 990–998 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-012-9602-x

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