doi:10.1093/heapro/dak003 Development of an integrated diabetes prevention program with First Nations in Canada

• Main Authors: L. S. Ho, J. Gittelsohn, S. B. Harris, E. Ford
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Canada; First Nations
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.488.8758; http://heapro.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2006/01/11/heapro.dak003.full.pdf

Type 2 diabetes mellitus is a major cause of morbidity and mortality among First Nations in Canada. We used multiple research methods to develop an integrated multi-institutional diabetes prevention program based on the successful Sandy Lake Health and Diabetes Project and Apache Healthy Stores programs. In-depth interviews, a structured survey, demonstration and feedback sessions, group activities, and meetings with key stakeholders were used to generate knowledge about the needs and resources for each community, and to obtain feedback on SLHDP interventions. First Nations communities were eager to address the increasing epidemic of diabetes. Educating children through a school prevention program was the most popular proposed intervention. Remote communities had poorer access to healthy foods and more on-reserve media and services than the smaller semi-remote reserves. While the reserves shared similar risk factors for diabetes, variations in health beliefs and attitudes and environmental conditions required tailoring of programs to each reserve. In addition, it was necessary to balance community input with proven health promotion strategies. This study demon-strates the importance of formative research in develop-ing integrated health promotion programs for multiple communities based on previously evaluated studies. Key words: diabetes; formative research; Native American