Project Diabetes: Prescription for Healthy Living

Lifestyle changes, such as moderate physical activity (e.g. brisk walking) have been shown to delay or prevent the development of Type 2 diabetes in patients with obesity and pre-diabetes. Given the clear benefit of exercise in disease prevention and management, evidence-based cost-effective brief interventions are needed to improve patient outcomes related to Type 2 diabetes and associated health disparities.

In America over the last two decades, adult obesity rates have doubled from 15% to 30%. In 1990, no state had an obesity rate over 14%. In 2003, thirty-five states posted obesity rates of over 20%. Tennessee currently ranks fifth in the U.S. for highest rate of adult obesity. In 2003, direct medical costs associated with obesity totaled an estimated $1.84 billion in Tennessee. Medicare ($433 million) and Medicaid ($488 million) absorbed approximately 50% of these medical costs. Obesity is closely linked with such diseases as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and certain cancers. In both East and South Nashville, cancer, heart disease, and stroke are listed as three of the top five causes of death with significant racial, educational, and economic disparities.

Reducing socioeconomic and racial/ethnic disparities in Type 2 diabetes among adults will require multiple interventions society-wide in order to provide cumulative and synergistic effects that can result in sustained health practices and improved patient outcomes. One step in this approach is to encourage health care providers to deliver health promotion advice and counseling to their patients during routine office visits. Another is to link advice with readily available resources wherein an individual might be able to implement counsel. Therefore, the specific aim of this proposal is to evaluate the relative contribution of a multi-component, behavioral counseling intervention delivered by health care professionals versus the same behavioral counseling intervention when augmented by an interactive health promotion "telephone helpline" that will, among other things offer guidance on the availability of physical activity resources at Metro Parks facilities. In order to refine this intervention (Phase II) before it is executed, focus groups will first be conducted in Phase I with members of the target population in order to obtain feedback on the proposed intervention activities and materials. Qualitative findings and feasibility testing will be the basis for modifying the intervention.