Intervention, recruitment and evaluation challenges in the Bangladeshi community: experience from a peer lead educational course.
BACKGROUND
The incidence of Type 2 diabetes is increasing worldwide and diabetes is four times more common among ethnic minority groups than among the general Caucasian population. This study reflects on the specific issues of engaging people and evaluating interventions through written questionnaires within older ethnic minority groups.


METHODS
The original protocol set out to evaluate an adapted version of the X-PERT patient program http://www.xpert-diabetes.org.uk/ using questionnaires and interviews.


RESULTS
Questionnaires, even verbally completed, were unsuccessful and difficult to administer as participants found the questionnaire structure and design difficult to follow and did not perceive any benefit to completing the questionnaires. The benefits of attending the course were also poorly understood by participants and in many cases people participated in coming to the course as a favour to the researcher. Engaging participants required word of mouth and the involvement of active members of the community.


CONCLUSIONS
Peer led courses and their evaluation in older ethnic minority communities needs a very different approach for that in younger Caucasian patients. A structured approached to evaluation (favoured by western educational system) is inappropriate. Engaging participants is difficult and the employment of local well known people is essential.
School of Medicine, Swansea University, Wales, UK. s.b.mannan@swansea.ac.uk
Sm
S
Choudhury
S
S
Brophy
M A
MA
Fareedi
B
B
Zaman
P
P
Ahmed
D R R
DR
Williams
D044466:Asian People; D001459:Bangladesh; D003376:Counseling / Q000379:methods; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D005006:Ethnicity; D017144:Focus Groups / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007407:Interviews as Topic / Q000379:methods; D008913:Minority Groups / Q000193:education*; D010379:Peer Group; D015995:Prevalence; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012307:Risk Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013663:Teaching / Q000379:methods*