title: Diabetes self-management activities for Latinos living in non-metropolitan rural communities: a snapshot of an underserved rural state.
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.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Health and Society, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway. daniel.james.sadowski@gmail.com
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Sadowski
authors.forename: Michele
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Devlin
authors.forename: Akhtar
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hussain
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015190:Blood Glucose Self-Monitoring / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000208:ethnology / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D054625:Healthcare Disparities / Q000208:ethnology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007484:Iowa / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008507:Medically Underserved Area; D008875:Middle Aged; D012424:Rural Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012648:Self Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*