A health protection model for Hispanic adults with Type 2 diabetes.

AIMS

The Hispanic Health Protection Model (HHPM) was designed to assist practitioners' systematic assessment of Hispanic people to establish baselines and evaluate the success of early diabetes treatment. This article provides the research basis of the HHPM and related assessment tools.

BACKGROUND

The treatment of diabetes incorporates lifestyle change, and this adjustment is particularly important to follow with vulnerable groups. One such group is the Hispanic population, since the impact of diabetes is greatest on economically disadvantaged segments of this population, who suffer disproportionately higher Type 2 diabetes prevalence and higher levels of morbidity and mortality as compared with other populations. Traditional Hispanic health beliefs are often in conflict with Western medicine, so the adjustments to the lifestyle demands of this disease need to be evaluated.

METHODS

To understand this discrepancy fully in patient outcomes, a culturally sensitive assessment framework was developed based on health protection theories and research with Hispanic people with diabetes and, based on this framework, assessment tools were translated for use during interviews with low literacy, Spanish-speaking patients.

CONCLUSIONS

The HHPM translated measures of premorbid lifestyle, health beliefs, support, self-efficacy, quality of life, knowledge of diabetes, and physiological parameters can be used during consecutive clinic visits during the first six months of therapy to map the success of patients' understanding of and psychological adjustment to diabetes.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE

The HHPM is a culturally-relevant, systematic, and holistic approach to assessing adjustment of Hispanic people to a new diagnosis of diabetes, including their psychological, cognitive, and physiological outcomes. Using this type of systematic approach will allow practitioners to target barriers to therapy, such as a lack of self-efficacy or incomplete knowledge of the disease and its treatment in a strategic manner to improve patient success in managing the complex lifestyle changes of diabetes mellitus.