Empowering My Community: Health Fair and Symposium on Culturally Tailored Diabetes Education for African Americans

Abstract

The lack of culturally tailored diabetes education for African Americans is the social problem addressed in this project. African Americans accounted for 4.9 million diagnosed cases of type 2 diabetes in 2021. Type 2 diabetes and related complications are disproportionately higher among African Americans, who are twice as likely to experience complications and death than Whites. This project used empowerment theory and the socioecological model of health to support the need for culturally tailored education on diabetes. A community engagement and collaborative approach with stakeholders, community members, and an expert healthcare panel confirmed a lack of culturally tailored diabetes education for African Americans, which led to the innovation of a health fair and symposium. A scoping review conducted a year prior emphasized the lack of literature on culturally tailored diabetes education, thus revealing the need and highlighting a collaborative approach with a faith-based organization as the best choice to address this challenge. An exploratory study of diabetes also informed the health fair and symposium on culturally tailored diabetes education. The social innovation described in this project aims to raise awareness of and increase knowledge on diabetes self-management to improve health outcomes through a collaborative approach directed by the Community Engagement and Social Innovation Model. The health fair provided screenings that informed individuals of their diabetes status, and the symposium increased knowledge and understanding of diabetes. Thus, increasing local partnerships and replicating this innovation would provide additional information on the efficacy of this innovation and its ability to effect change among African Americans with diabetes.