Introduction
Diabetes is a significant public health problem in the United States (US). According to the Diabetes Research Institute Foundation, over a tenth of the population has diabetes and related conditions, and the number of new cases continues to rise rapidly (Diabetes statistics, 2020). The US is not alone in this issue. It is worth noting that “diabetes mellitus is the most common abnormal carbohydrate metabolism disorder affecting millions of people worldwide” (Ergun-Longmire et al., 2021, p. 101153). Minority groups, especially the African American community, are the most affected by what can rightfully be called the diabetes epidemic. A question was formulated using the Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome, and Time (PICOT) format to develop the evidence-based solution to such a large-scale problem. Can African Americans (P) who participate in an educational session about diabetes and diabetes management (I), compared to those who did not participate (C), learn from an educational session about diabetes and diabetes self-management (O) in a three-month period (T)?
African Americans and Their Health
The first element of the PICOT question to be discussed here is the population of interest, which, as noted above, are African Americans. According to Taylor (2019), “African Americans comprise 13.4 percent of the U.S. population” (para. 2). However, they suffer from illness and infirmity at a disproportionately high rate than other population groups (Taylor, 2019). This statement is also true for diabetes and related conditions in African Americans (Diabetes and African Americans, 2021). They also have lower life expectancy than any other racial or ethnic community in the US (Taylor, 2019). The reasons for these negative phenomena are economic and social inequality and systemic deficiencies in the US health care system.
Educational Session about Diabetes and Diabetes Management
The proposed intervention is an educational session about diabetes and diabetes management that longs for three months. During such and similar activities, people diagnosed with diabetes are taught how to manage their condition “more effectively by checking blood sugar regularly, eating healthy food, being active, taking medicines as prescribed, and handling stress” (Managing diabetes, 2018). Ergun-Longmire et al. (2021) note that “diabetes education and training start at the time of diagnosis of diabetes and should be continuous throughout the course of disease” (p. 101153). It is noteworthy that a multidisciplinary team usually performs diabetes educational sessions.
Intended Control Group
The control group against which the data will be compared in the future study is African Americans who did not participate in an educational session about diabetes and diabetes management. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people who have not received information support from healthcare organizations feel less healthy than those who got it (Managing diabetes, 2018). There is also still little data on the efficiency of educational sessions about diabetes topics for African Americans to draw any conclusions. The impact of three-month health education programs for racial and ethnic minorities is also not well understood.
Outcomes to Be Expected
During the three-month intervention, African Americans are expected to learn various new facts about diabetes, such as its causes, signs, and consequences, and develop essential diabetes self-management skills. This, in turn, should improve their general health. Existing data show that people who participated in similar programs and received informational support are healthier than those who did not. (Managing diabetes, 2018). These measures are effective, and people can learn from them. Nevertheless, one should not exclude the possibility of a negative outcome where an educational session could not provide important knowledge about diabetes to African Americans to help them manage the condition.
Timeframe
As it was previously mentioned, the intervention will take three months. This timeframe is the standard in many scientific disciplines; Health and Medicine are no exception. A journal article by Pippi et al. (2021) on obesity and hypertension, conditions closely related to diabetes, shows three months enough to get results and draw conclusions from multidisciplinary lifestyle interventions. These are two reasons why such a length of time was chosen for the study’s experimental part.
Conclusion
This paper explores and explains five main aspects of the question formulated according to the PICOT format. The question is, can African Americans who participate in an educational session about diabetes and diabetes management, compared to those who did not participate, learn from an educational session about diabetes and diabetes self-management in a three-month period? The health status of the African American population was described. There were also provided reasons why they were selected as the sample audience. The intervention consists of an educational session on themes of diabetes and diabetes management. The resulting qualitative data will be compared with a control group of African Americans who did not attend the educational session. A positive result is expected, namely that African Americans will learn more about diabetes and better self-manage their condition. Still, it should be borne in mind that a negative outcome is also possible. It was also found that three months is the usual timeframe for the experiment in Health and Medicine.
References
Diabetes and African Americans. (2021). Office of Minority Health. Web.
Diabetes statistics. (2020). Diabetes Research Institute Foundation. Web.
Ergun-Longmire, B., Clemente, E., Vining-Maravolo, P., Roberts, C., Buth, K., & Greydanus, D. E. (2021). Diabetes education in pediatrics: How to survive diabetes. Disease-a-Month, 101153. Web.
Managing diabetes. (2018). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Web.
Pippi, R., Bini, V., Reginato, E., Aiello, C., & Fanelli, C. (2021). Are three months multidisciplinary lifestyle intervention enough to get benefits on blood pressure in overweight/obese adults? Physical Activity Review, 9(1), 40-53. doi:10.16926/par.2021.09.06
Taylor, J. (2019). Racism, inequality, and health care for African Americans. The Century Foundation. Web.