Diabetes and South Asians

A few weeks back I asked about resources relating to diabetes interventions for South Asians on the Social Marketing listserve. Here’s a short summary of some of the I was pointed towards and some of the additional useful background reading I discovered. Thank you to everyone who responded and contributed!

Several of the listserve members pointed me into the direction of the National Diabetes Education Program: http://www.ndep.nih.gov/diabetes/pubs/catalog.htm and the Association of American Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) site: http://aapiusa.org/care/healthandnutrition.htm - all of which have specific promotional material aimed at South Asians. In addition, I also located a local East London based initiative, Maslaha , which is a Tower Hamlets based Muslim organisation for the prevention of and dealing with diabetes. The latter contains a number of interesting videos and support material showing how both religion and health prevention is combined in this instance.

A number of interesting background reading also emerged. In particular the case study of hosting a Diabetes “Fair” at a health centre in Bromley by Bow, published by Coughlan (2005). A similar article by Greenhalgh, Collard, & Begum (2005) discusses the development of a bilingual health-advocate led education and support group for elderly South Asian patients with diabetes using a story telling format as a basis for the intervention.

Two articles I found take a broader view in looking at the various obstacles faced in Diabetes education: A rather dated article looks at the specific religious barriers faced (Burden, 1998), while an article from the freely available BMJ by Grace, Begum & Subhani (2008) takes a qualitative approach using focus groups and semi structured interviews at researching the various factors that influence prevention work in East London. The latter discusses in detail the various religious and cultural aspects, including knowledge of Diabetes, perceived fatalism and social roles and expectations which impact on Diabetes prevention.

Websites:
Maslaha - http://www.diabetesintowerhamlets.org/
National Diabetes Education Program: http://www.ndep.nih.gov/diabetes/pubs/catalog.htm
Association of American Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) site: http://aapiusa.org/care/healthandnutrition.htm

Further Reading:
Grace, C; Begum, R, Subhani, S. et al (2008 ): Prevention of type 2 diabetes in British Bangladeshis: qualitative study of community, religious, and professional perspectives, BMJ Vol 337

Greenhalgh,T ; Collard, A; Begum, N (2005): Narrative based medicine, Practical Diabetes International
Volume 22 Issue 4, pp 125-129

Burden, M. L. (1998): Education of people with diabetes and health care workers in a country where islamic people are a minority, Practical Diabetes International, Volume 15, Issue S1 , pp S13 - S14

Coughlan, Y (2005): Diabetes Fairs: Bromley by Bow Healthcentre. An holistic approach to diabetes care in the community, Practical Diabetes International Volume 22 Issue 6, pp 197 - 201

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