Seed-alter Dyad Social Support Intervention for Rural Dwelling Older Adults With T2DM

A mixed-methods approach will be used to map social networks of older adults and assess their perceived social support from members of their social network and determine its influence on self-care and clinical outcomes. We will conduct semi-structured interviews with older rural-dwelling adults to map their social network structure, determine the types of social support provided by members of their SN, and identify key players within the older adults' personal network. For this aim, key players are those who can facilitate and promote T2DM self-care on an individual level. These older adults will form a dyad with their alter to participate in a multilevel intervention which includes: gauging the feasibility of using community health workers identified via social network analysis to conduct self-care sessions in rural communities, and the feasibility of seed-alter dyads to provide social support that improves self-care in older adults.

In addition, the seed-alter dyad will participate in 6 weekly sessions of a diabetes education program, led by the community health workers identified previously. Participants will be asked to complete surveys at baseline, 6, and 12 months to assess social support, participants' knowledge about diabetes, and how participants are managing their diabetes.

The preliminary data used for this K01 application was collected from the BRFSS where data is self-reported and its accuracy cannot be confirmed, and a dataset where social support was not the primary objective of the study and there was a small sample size all older adults. Yet, there remains a body of literature that substantiates the influence of social support on T2DM self-care and the disproportionate burden of T2DM in older adults. The proposed research will provide a comprehensive overview of the role of social support and how to leverage this support in a rural community.