Diabetes Nutrition Education and Healthy Food Resource for AIANs With T2D

Type 2 Diabetes

Healthy nutrition habits are key to managing type 2 diabetes (T2D). However, American Indian and Alaska Natives (AI/ANs) often lack access to culturally relevant nutrition education and they disproportionately experience food insecurity. Food insecurity, defined as lack of consistent access to enough food for an active, healthy life, negatively impacts one's ability to engage in diabetes self-management and care. The purpose of this study is to evaluate if diabetes nutrition education and an added food security resource, such as farmers market vouchers for fruits and vegetables, can improve diabetes self-management for AI/ANs with T2D. Researchers will work with collaborators at the Oklahoma City Indian Clinic in Oklahoma City, OK, and an American Indian community advisory board (CAB) throughout the study to ensure the nutrition education and food security resources are designed to meet the needs of the community and clinic. With the guidance of the CAB, researchers will recruit adults with T2D to participate in a 3-month intervention. Participants will be randomized into one of 3 groups. Some people will have diabetes nutrition education and the food security resource, some will have only the diabetes nutrition education, and some will receive only the food security resource. Outcomes such as food security status and clinical diabetes health indicators will be measured at 5 timepoints. This intervention is significant to diabetes because AI/ANs experience diabetes health disparities and the combination of diabetes nutrition education plus an added food security resource could help decrease T2D complications and improve quality of life for AI/ANs.

Background: Healthy nutrition is key to T2D self-care and management. Culturally relevant nutrition education for American Indian and Alaska Natives (AI/Ans) is limited, contributing to diabetes health disparities, and disproportionate rates of food insecurity exacerbates these disparities. Hypothesis: AI/ANs with T2D who receive both culturally relevant diabetes nutrition education and food security resources will have more improved outcomes (e.g., dietary intake, HbA1c) than AI/ANs with T2D who receive only diabetes nutrition education or a food security resource. Supporting Rationale: Nutrition education improves T2D outcomes and reducing food insecurity can decrease diabetes health disparities. Specific Aims: Aim #1: Engage an AI/AN community advisory board to support rigorous and equitable community based participatory research; Aim #2: Implement and evaluate a diabetes nutrition education and food security resource intervention in collaboration with the Oklahoma City Indian Clinic in Oklahoma City, OK. Research Design: Three arm randomized controlled trial with: intervention group (diabetes nutrition education + food security resource); diabetes nutrition education group only; food security resource group only. Three month intervention with diabetes nutrition education and food security resource with 5 data collection timepoints: baseline, 1, 3, 6, 9 months. Outcomes include: HbA1c, blood pressure, dietary intake, diabetes distress, and food security. Relevance to a cure, prevention and/or treatment of diabetes: Treatment of T2D among AI/ANs requires multi-level approaches to decrease health disparities related to social determinants of health such as lack of access to healthful foods. Providing both nutrition education and a food security resource could synergistically improve T2D self-management for AI/ANs

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