by Jeff Bendix

A patient's willingness to accept the fact that he or she has diabetes, which is incurable but can be managed, has long been thought to be key to promoting healthier behaviors such as weight loss and stopping smoking. But a recent study conducted by researchers at CWRU's Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing casts doubt on the link between acceptance of diabetes and healthy behaviors.

The study, which appears in the July 2003 issue of the Journal of Black Nurses Association, focused on 63 African-Americans at a community health clinic in Cleveland. It examined the relationships among personal factors, such as education, mental health and physical functioning on social support for those with diabetes and the relationship between social support, acceptance and health-promoting behaviors.

The study found that social support was a significant factor in helping persons with diabetes to accept their disease, but contrary to expectations, acceptance did not predict health-promoting behaviors among individuals with type 2 diabetes.

The finding is significant, according to Patricia McDonald, assistant professor of nursing at the Bolton School and one of the authors of the study, because more than 95 percent of the care of diabetes is self-care. Moreover, an increasing proportion of persons with diabetes are African-American. Since acceptance did not have a significant effect on behavior in this study, McDonald said, it is important to enhance awareness of health consequences in diabetes and to provide more support services for African-Americans in order to prevent the life-threatening complications which result from untreated diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes is the fourth leading cause of death from disease among Americans, and African-Americans contract the disease significantly more often than whites.

 

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