title: Reducing disparities for African Americans with diabetes: progress made by the REACH 2010 Charleston and Georgetown Diabetes Coalition.
abstract: Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH 2010) is a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention demonstration program that responds to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' goal to eliminate racial and ethnic disparities in health status by the year 2010. As part of REACH 2010, community projects were funded to develop, implement, and evaluate community action plans to improve health care and outcomes for racial and ethnic populations. This article describes the program and details the progress of the REACH 2010: Charleston and Georgetown Diabetes Coalition in reducing disparities in care. Approaches employed by the Coalition included community development, empowerment, and education related to diabetes; health systems change associated with access, care, and education; and coalition advocacy. Racial disparities were identified for 12,000 African Americans with diabetes in this urban/rural South Carolina community. After 24 months, significant differences that initially ranged from 11% to 28% in African Americans (when compared with whites/others) were not observed on 270 chart audits for A1C, lipid and kidney testing, eye examinations, and blood pressure control. Future efforts will focus on maintaining progress, eliminating other disparities, and identifying the contributions of each intervention in eliminating racial disparities.
authors.affiliation: College of Nursing, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC 29425, USA. jenkinsc@musc.edu
authors.forename: Carolyn
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jenkins
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: McNary
authors.forename: Barbara A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Carlson
authors.forename: Marilyn Givens
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: King
authors.forename: Charles L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Hossler
authors.forename: Gayenell
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Magwood
authors.forename: Deyi
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.forename: Katharine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hendrix
authors.forename: Lorna Shelton
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Beck
authors.forename: Florene
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Linnen
authors.forename: Virginia
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.forename: Sheila
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Powell
authors.forename: Imani
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Ma'at
mesh_terms: D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003153:Community Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology / Q000628:therapy*; D006265:Health Care Coalitions; D006801:Humans; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D012935:Social Justice; D013022:South Carolina / Q000453:epidemiology