Community health awareness of diabetes (CHAD): description of a community-wide diabetes awareness demonstration program and its feasibility.
OBJECTIVE
This article describes the Community Health Awareness Diabetes (CHAD) program and its feasibility. Developing and testing the feasibility of strategies to detect diabetes in the community is an important primary care issue. The CHAD program was designed to be a feasible and reproducible, low-cost community program to identify high-risk individuals for subsequent diabetes screening by their family doctors.


METHODS
Participants from Grimsby, Ontario, older than age 40, were invited to self-risk-assess for diabetes using a validated questionnaire and 2 near-patient blood tests (capillary blood glucose and glycosylated hemoglobin). Some participants were self-selected, having seen advertising for the program, others were invited by a letter from their family doctor. None of the participants had pre-existing diabetes. Numbers and characteristics of participants, numbers found at risk and satisfaction of participants were examined.


RESULTS
There were 588 participants in CHAD. Of these, the majority had received invitation letters, the majority of participants were seniors and were females, 526 did not have pre-existing diabetes and 16% of participants (n=84 of 526) were identified as being at high risk for diabetes. Participants at high risk of diabetes had significantly more modifiable risk factors, including higher fat, fast food and salt intake, and higher systolic blood pressure. Satisfaction with the program was high.


CONCLUSIONS
The CHAD program was feasible and participants were satisfied with it. Participants had a large number of modifiable risk factors. This program could be repeated in other communities and modified to suit the infrastructure of the area.
Department of Family Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Electronic address: gina.agarwal@gmail.com.
Gina
G
Agarwal
Département de Médecine Familiale et Médecine D'urgence, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Québéc, Canada.
Janusz
J
Kaczorowski
Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
Steven
S
Hanna
D000368:Aged; D001364:Awareness; D001786:Blood Glucose / Q000378:metabolism*; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D019058:Community Networks; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D006442:Glycated Hemoglobin / Q000378:metabolism*; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening; D008875:Middle Aged; D009864:Ontario / Q000453:epidemiology; D010865:Pilot Projects; D015397:Program Evaluation; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012307:Risk Factors; D040242:Risk Reduction Behavior
D001786:Blood Glucose; D006442:Glycated Hemoglobin; C517652:hemoglobin A1c protein, human
communauté; community; diabetes; diabète; dépistage; primary care; risk-assessment; screening; soins primaires; évaluation des risques