There is an urgent need for culturally tailored diabetes self-management education to improve health outcomes in African Americans, especially given the disproportionate prevalence of diabetes and medication non-adherence. Stakeholder engagement can guide and enrich the development of these interventions by integrating content directly addressing barriers to African Americans’ adherence with existing community-based diabetes self-management education programs. The aim of this study including HIP Investigator Dr. Yao Liu is to explore stakeholder perspectives on a novel culturally tailored diabetes self-management program for African Americans.
The study identified major themes using key stakeholders’ perspectives related to facilitators, barriers, and strategies to be used in the implementation in the program. Healthcare professionals and organizational leaders believed that the Peers EXCEL program would complement clinical care and could contribute to reducing health disparities by providing peer support in address barriers to diabetes medication adherence, diet, and lifestyle management. Peer support was viewed as having the ability to create a safe, open environment.
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