Culturally competent dietary education for southern rural African Americans with diabetes

The purpose of this article is to describe a culturally competent, dietary self-management intervention designed to improve physiological outcomes, diabetes self-management, and costs of care for high-risk African Americans with type 2 diabetes.

A longitudinal, quasi-experimental design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention for 23 adult African Americans from a physician practice group in rural South Carolina. The intervention consisted of 4 low-fat dietary education classes, 6 discussion groups, and follow-up. Intervention sessions were provided by a dietitian and nurse case managers and framed as social events; families were encouraged to participate.

Data suggest that the intervention significantly improved fat-related dietary habits, A1C values, fasting blood glucose, and frequency of acute care visits. A trend in reduction of lipids and weight also was observed.

Culturally competent dietary self-management provides a meaningful approach to focused diabetes education for rural African Americans. Integrating nursing case management provides an innovative method of addressing the more global issues of delivery of care to underserved rural populations and decreasing the high costs of care.