Health-related quality of life, disease severity, and anticipated trajectory of diabetes.

Purpose: Adults hospitalized with diabetes are likely to have multiple comorbid conditions contributing to suboptimal health-related quality of life. The purpose of this study was to survey urban, very low-income, hospitalized adults with diabetes about disease severity, anticipated disease trajectory, and self-rated health-related quality of life.

Methods: Data were collected using the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire, the 36-item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36), the comparative risk perception questionnaire, and glycosylated hemoglobin.

Healthcare technician delivered screening of adults with diabetes to improve primary care provider recognition of depression.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to implement a continuous quality improvement project aimed at improving primary care provider recognition of depression.

Materials And Methods: A randomized, blinded, pre- and post-test design was implemented with 92 adults attending an academic internal medicine clinic. Subjects were assigned to an intervention where healthcare technicians (HCT) trained in the fundamentals of diabetes education delivered brief probing questions about self-care behavior and tailored talking points to encourage patients to talk to their primary care physician about their emotional health.

Afrocentric cultural values and beliefs: movement beyond the race and ethnicity proxy to understand views of diabetes.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to estimate the benefit of using a cultural characteristics scale to help diabetes educators understand how African Americans cope with diabetes. Illness representations are influenced by culture. Race and ethnicity as a proxy for culture provides an incomplete understanding of the mechanism by which cultural values influence representations of diabetes.

Self-regulation theory and the multigenerational legacy of diabetes.

The purpose of this study was to lend further support to the practice-based theory multigenerational legacies of diabetes (MGLDM). The hypothesis that perceptions of diabetes differ depending upon self-reported family history of diabetes was tested. Surveys assessing illness representation were administered by mail to adults with type 2 diabetes who attended diabetes education programs in a Northern Metropolitan East Coast location.