Diabetes Prevention and Management: Small Steps With Big Rewards
Diabetes in the United States presents a serious and growing public health concern. In the last decade, the number of people with diabetes has grown dramatically. Approximately half of all diabetes cases occur in people older than 60 years of age. In 2002, diabetes was the fourth leading cause of death for elders ages 55 to 64, and the fifth leading cause for elders ages 65 to 84. In addition, diabetes affects people of color, especially elders, more severely than non-Hispanic whites.
The good news is that changes in eating habits, physical activity, and diabetes self-care are often within the individual's power to control. The challenge is that in order to become permanent these changes require support from family, partners, friends, healthcare, public health, and aging-services professionals, health insurance administrators, and policymakers in the community.
The “Diabetes Prevention and Management” module provides aging-services professionals with the tools to create a supportive community environment that allows older adults to take small steps toward preventing and better managing type 2 diabetes.
Highlights of the module:
- An overview and definition of type 2 diabetes and prediabetes
- Current national guidelines for diabetes management, weight loss, and nutrition and physical activity for people with diabetes
- Information on how to tailor your programs to special populations, such as communities of color
- Strategies for empowering individuals to make healthful choices and communicate better with their healthcare providers
- Suggestions for creating organizational and community-wide partnerships for improving care of elders with diabetes
- Consumer education curricula and handouts
- Strategies for creating an evidence-based health promotion program, including developing clear goals and objectives, drafting logic models, and developing an evaluation plan
This module was developed by Sandra Maldague, MPH, American Society on Aging, and Carolyn Leontos, MS, RD, CDE, University of Nevada. The module was independently reviewed for cultural competency. The authors wish to thank the National Diabetes Education Program older adults' workgroup for their technical support in the development of this module. Materials published in September 2005.
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