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Linking Community Resources in Diabetes Care: a Role for Technology?

  • Psychosocial Aspects (KK Hood and S Jaser, Section Editors)
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Abstract

Designing and implementing effective lifestyle modification strategies remains one of the great challenges in diabetes care. Historically, programs have focused on individual behavior change with little or no attempt to integrate change within the broader social framework or community context. However, these contextual factors have been shown to be associated with poor diabetes outcomes, particularly in low-income minority populations. Recent evidence suggests that one way to address these disparities is to match patient needs to existing community resources. Not only does this position patients to more quickly adapt behavior in a practical way, but this also refers patients back to their local communities where a support mechanism is in place to sustain healthy behavior. Technology offers a new and promising platform for connecting patients to meaningful resources (also referred to as “assets”). This paper summarizes several noteworthy innovations that use technology as a practical bridge between healthcare and community-based resources that promote diabetes self-care.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) (Grant No. R18DK083946), the Chicago Center for Diabetes Translation Research (Grant No. P30 DK092949-01), and the Alliance to Reduce Disparities in Diabetes of the Merck Foundation. Elizabeth L. Tung, MD, was supported by the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (Grant No. T32 HS000078-17). We also acknowledge Stacy T. Lindau, MD, MAPP, and the South Side Health and Vitality Studies (SSHVS) for their support in the writing of this paper, as well as their contributions to the conceptual model included. Further information on the SSHVS team can be found at: https://thestudies.uchicago.edu/node.

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Conflict of Interest

Elizabeth L. Tung and Monica E. Peek declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Section of General Internal Medicine, Chicago Center of Diabetes Translation Research, University of Chicago, 5841 South Maryland Avenue, MC 2007, Chicago, IL, 60637, USA

    Elizabeth L. Tung & Monica E. Peek

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  1. Elizabeth L. Tung
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Correspondence to Elizabeth L. Tung.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Psychosocial Aspects

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Tung, E.L., Peek, M.E. Linking Community Resources in Diabetes Care: a Role for Technology?. Curr Diab Rep 15, 45 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11892-015-0614-5

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