A Church Based Intervention to Improve Diabetes Care

African Americans suffer disproportionately from diabetes and its complications. To reduce this burden of suffering, innovative interventions are needed to improve self-care behaviors including: dietary intake, physical activity (PA), self-monitoring, and medication adherence. The goal of this study (A New DAWN) was to develop and test a culturally appropriate, church-based intervention to improve diabetes self-management and glycemic control.

Twenty-four African American churches in central NC were recruited and randomized to receive the special intervention (SI-13 churches, 117 participants) or the delayed intervention (DI-11 churches, 84 participants). The SI included an 8-month intensive phase consisting of: 1 individual dietary assessment and counseling visit; 12 group sessions; monthly phone contact with a peer counselor (church diabetes advisor (CDA)); and 3 printed encouragement messages from the primary care clinician. This was followed by a 4-month reinforcement phase including monthly phone contacts from the CDA. At 8- and 12-month follow-up, HbA1c was assessed by high-performance liquid chromatography.

At baseline, 64% of participants were female and means were: age 59, years with diabetes 9, HbA1c 7.8%, Systolic Blood Pressure 139, Diastolic Blood Pressure 76, and BMI 35.0. A total of 174 (87%) participants returned for 8-month measures. Adjusting for baseline values and randomization by church, the mean HbA1c level was 7.4% for the SI and 7.8% for the DI (difference 0.4%, 95% Confidence Interval (CI) 0.1-0.6, p = 0.009). There were no statistically significant differences between groups for BP or BMI. Of 82 (70%) SI participants completing an 8-month follow-up questionnaire, 65 (79%) were very satisfied with the nutritional component, 63 (77%) were very satisfied with the PA component, and 72 (88%) considered the program to be very helpful overall.

In A New DAWN, the SI was acceptable and produced a modest, but clinically significant, reduction in HbA1c. These findings support the acceptability and effectiveness of self-management interventions given in a church setting for African Americans with type 2 diabetes.