For the patient. Many nursing home patients do not receive diabetes medicine.

People with diabetes who manage their disease are less likely to have heart attacks and strokes. To manage diabetes, patients may control blood sugar levels by diet or medication, lowering blood pressure and cholesterol, and exercising regularly. Diabetes is very common among Latinos and African Americans. At the University of Michigan, researchers developed a program that helped people manage their diabetes, but the program has never been tested among groups of older Latinos or African Americans. The researcher’s goal was to make cultural and age-specific changes to this program, which had a self-care empowerment program. We conducted focus groups with older Latinos and African Americans at two public health diabetes and geriatrics clinics and two senior centers in south Los Angeles. To be chosen for the focus groups, a person had to be Latino or African American, 55 years of age or older, and have diabetes. We also conducted 2 focus groups of health educators who care for older Latinos or African Americans with diabetes. After describing the proposed program, focus group leaders asked participants: 1) whether their community would have interest in the proposed empowerment program; 2) reasons for supporting or not supporting the program; and, 3) suggestions for changing the program to meet the needs and concerns of the community. Older African Americans and Latinos thought well of the program, but wanted more information on diet. They also said disability was a common problem among older persons with diabetes and suggested that the program address this need. Participants did not like the use of an audio learning tool and did not believe that making sure the facilitator was the same age or race as the group members was important, as long as facilitators were sensitive to cultural differences. Results from the focus group will be used to make changes to the self-care program to improve the health of older Latinos and African Americans.