Culturally tailored intervention for African Americans with type 2 diabetes administered by a nurse case manager and community health worker reduces emergency room visits

Abstract

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality for African Americans, who suffer disproportionately from its complications. The need for culturally appropriate, tailored interventions to improve metabolic outcomes and quality of life for African Americans with T2DM has been addressed in the literature;1 2 our task now is to develop, test and evaluate these interventions and to disseminate them to the healthcare community. The approach used in this intervention is innovative in that it creates a team of nurse case manager (NCM), community health worker (CHW) and primary care providers, providing for continuity of care (“supplement ongoing clinical care”) outside of regularly scheduled clinic visits.