title: The Diabetic Health of African American Grandmothers Raising their Grandchildren.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study is to compare the health of primary caregiving African American grandmothers with diabetes with African American women with diabetes who were not primary caregivers.
  
  
  METHODS
  Using a comparative, descriptive, cross-sectional design, 34 African American primary caregiving grandmothers were compared with 34 non-caregiving women with diabetes mellitus; women aged 55-75 years were recruited for this study throughout the central Arkansas.
  
  
  METHODS
  To measure the overall health, data on blood pressure, body mass index measurements, HbA1c levels, total cholesterol, and urine protein and creatinine levels were collected from all the participants.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Statistically significant differences between the caregivers and non-caregivers groups in systolic pressure (t = -3.42, P = 0.001) and diastolic pressure (t = -3.790, P = 0.000) and urine protein (W = 294.00, P = 0.000) were noted. Additionally, a clinically significant difference in HbA1c was noted between groups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Differences in systolic and diastolic pressures, urine protein, and clinically significant differences in HbA1c suggest that African American primary caregiving grandmothers with diabetes mellitus may have more difficulty in maintaining their diabetic health than non-caregiving African American women.
authors.affiliation: Assistant Professor, Michigan State University, College of Nursing.
authors.forename: Dana L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Carthron
authors.affiliation: PhD Candidate, School of Nursing, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Maria Rivera
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Busam
keywords: African-American women; caregiving; diabetes; grandmothers raising grandchildren; health