In this high-tech world of electronic communications, the older, reliable form of communication via the telephone has proven effective in reaching out to older African-American women with diabetes.
From research presented at ISHIB2005, elderly African-American women with diabetes receiving direct phone communication had improved problem-solving skills, psychosocial adjustment, and increased levels of exercise compared to those in the study’s control group.
Age, ethnicity, lower socioeconomic status and being female increase the likelihood of developing diabetes and its complications. Older African-American women are among the group with the highest rates of diabetes in this country. The Centers for Disease and Control reports that 33% of African-American women ages 60-74 years have diabetes, compared to 16% of White women of the same age group. For middle-aged women, type 2 diabetes is more than twice as common among non-Whites as it is among Whites. Among women aged 50-59 years, the prevalence is 23% for Blacks, 24% for Mexican Americans, and 9.7% for Whites.
The study presented at ISHIB2005 was designed to determine ways to reduce these diabetes health disparities and to improve health outcomes. Knowing that many issues hinder efforts to provide appropriate care to older African-American women, researcher Emelia Amoako, PhD designed a study that shows that the older form of communication - the telephone - can be used to deliver a convenient, low-cost and individualized intervention appropriate for the African-American culture.