Are you Diabetic
As America has been made aware, diabetes has become epidemic among American Indians. The onset of diabetes and pre-diabetes conditions are now occurring at younger and younger ages. We have spent years working at the "awareness" of diabetes and prevention of diabetic complication. Now tribal leaders are becoming more aware of the new "epidemic" and many of the leaders are considering diabetes to be the number one health problem for their communities.
Looking at public health programs in urban communities and the model they are fashioned after, one of the most important functions is the screening of people who are at risk for certain diseases. Diabetes is certainly a disease that warrants a screening project, because diabetes causes a high burden of disease; it is detectable by testing sometimes years before symptoms occur, and especially before the disease is irreversibly established. The screening tests for pre-diabetes are very reliable and available, and, diabetes, can be prevented by lifestyle changes.
Given the above circumstances, the diabetes program of the Colville Confederated Tribes proposes to determine the risk/prevalence of diabetes among the Native youth. The GOAL is to find the number of youth and adolescents living on or near the Colville Reservation who have metabolic syndrome or insulin resistance, who are at risk for diabetes; intervening with education for lifestyle changes with the families of said youth.