Empowering Faith-based Communities to Provide Personalized Diabetes Self-management Education and Support (DSMES) in the Magic City: A Pilot Study
Empowering Faith-based Communities to Provide Personalized Diabetes Self-management Education and Support (DSMES) in the Magic City: A Pilot Study
In this study, individuals living with diabetes in the Birmingham area will participate in a free, 3-month DSMES program hosted by MedsPLUS Consulting, a local independent pharmacy and wellness center, at a local faith-based organization. DSMES sessions meet twice a month and typically address topics including physical activity, nutrition, coping, and reducing risk and complications. Prior to beginning the program, participants will complete a questionnaire that assesses diabetes self-management behaviors (such as diet, physical activity, and medication adherence) and diabetes knowledge. Additionally, they will participate in a biometric screening where clinical data such as blood A1C, blood pressure, blood cholesterol, and BMI are collected. This data will also be collected again after the completion of the program. In this program, participants will be assigned a community health worker who will contact them outside of scheduled DSMES sessions to provide support. Participants will also be randomly assigned to one of two cohorts, the Traditional cohort and the Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) cohort. The traditional cohort will use paper trackers to track blood pressure and blood sugar outside of DSMES sessions while the RPM cohort will utilize an RPM platform to track this data.
Participants in this study will take part in a free, 3-month DSMES program hosted by MedsPLUS Consulting, a local independent pharmacy and wellness center. DSMES sessions meet twice a month and typically address topics including physical activity, nutrition, coping, and reducing risk and complications. Prior to beginning the program, they will complete questionnaires that assess diabetes self-management behaviors (such as diet, physical activity, and medication adherence) and diabetes knowledge. Additionally, they will participate in a biometric screening where clinical data such as blood A1C, blood pressure, blood cholesterol, and BMI will be collected. This data will also be collected again after the completion of the program. MedsPLUS Consulting are licensed pharmacists skilled in conducting biometric screenings and will assist in the collection of the clinical data. MedsPLUS Consulting will also be responsible for disposing of the biospecimens collected for the study through use of the SHARPS program.
In this study, DSMES participants will be randomly-assigned to one of two cohorts. One cohort will participate in the DSMES program and use remote patient monitoring (RPM) to track their health throughout the duration. Remote patient monitoring allows a participant's healthcare team to visualize and monitor health data outside of scheduled DSMES sessions. These participants will be given blood pressure and blood glucose tracking devices that utilize Bluetooth to automatically upload their health data into an RPM platform, Prevounce, once measurements are taken. The second cohort will also participate in the DSMES program but instead will be provided traditional blood pressure cuffs and glucometers that will not upload their data to a mobile platform to track their health data. These participants will use traditional means (paper trackers) to track their health data and will provide health updates during scheduled communication with the team. One community health worker (two total) will be assigned to each cohort to monitor the progress of the participants. These community health workers will contact participants outside of scheduled DSMES sessions to assess barriers that may hinder progress.The results of these interactions will be shared with MedsPLUS Consulting and the study team.
As a means of assessing the barriers for implementation for the entire faith-based DSMES program that incorporates RPM, DSMES participants, leadership from the faith-based organization, community health workers, and MedsPLUS Consulting will be asked to participate in focus groups or semi-structured interviews.
Inclusion Criteria:
Exclusion Criteria:
dmball@uab.edu205-934-6553