Texas Community Diabetes Projects

Submission Date: December 2013

State/Territory Submitted on the Behalf of: Texas

States/Territories Involved: Texas

Domain Addressed:

Community-Clinical Linkages

Public Health Issue:

Physical activity, weight and blood pressure control, and smoking cessation are all vital for treating and preventing diabetes and its complications such as heart disease.

Communities that improve food and physical activity environments, implement health and disease-management education and raise awareness about disease prevention can impact the health of their population and prevent many chronic conditions, including diabetes.

Program Action:

Charged with implementing the Texas Diabetes Council’s state plan addressing the needs of Texans with diabetes, the Texas Diabetes Prevention and Control Program started Community Diabetes Projects addressing common objectives for participants including wellness, increased physical activity, weight and blood pressure control, and smoking cessation for people with or at risk for diabetes

Sixteen projects involving federally qualified health centers, local health departments and other nonprofit organizations were funded to offer diabetes self-management classes, work with local coalitions, participate in state tobacco control efforts, assist with chronic disease surveillance activities, train community health workers, work with local media, and field-test diabetes education materials.

The University of Texas provided technical assistance, project evaluation, and development of a standardized evaluation tool for collecting patient outcome data across CDPs.

Impact/Accomplishments:

Results for a group of 679 participants who attended diabetes self-management education (DSME) or nutrition classes show that participants with and without diabetes improved their food consumption behaviors and most participants’ waist circumference decreased over time (an indicator of improved health status).

Preliminary results on a larger group (1600 participants in DSME, nutrition and/or physical activity classes from twelve projects) shows:

• Physical activity increased more for participants with diabetes
• Diastolic blood pressure decreased among participants with diabetes
• A1c decreased slightly among participants with diabetes
• Indicators of emotional well-being increased among all participants

Program Areas:

Diabetes

State Contact Information:

TX
Carol Filer, MS, RD, LD
Texas Diabetes Prevention and Control Program
512-776-6407
Carol.Filer@dshs.state.tx.us

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