Healthy Eating and Exercising to Reduce Diabetes: Exploring the Potential of Social Determinants of Health Frameworks Within the Context of Community-Based Participatory Diabetes Prevention

• Published in: American journal of public health (1971) 2005-04, Vol.95 (4), p.645-651
• Main Authors: Schulz, Amy J, Zenk, Shannon, Odoms-Young, Angela, Hollis-Neely, Teretha, Nwankwo, Robin, Lockett, Murlisa, Ridella, William, Kannan, Srimathi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; African Americans; Age groups; Behavior; Biological and medical sciences; Black or African American; Community; Community Health Services - organization & administration; Community involvement; Diabetes; Diabetes Mellitus - diet therapy; Diabetes Mellitus - epidemiology; Diabetes Mellitus - ethnology; Diabetes Mellitus - prevention & control; Diabetes. Impaired glucose tolerance; Diet; Eating behavior; Endocrine pancreas. Apud cells (diseases); Endocrinopathies; Etiopathogenesis. Screening. Investigations. Target tissue resistance; Exercise; Exercise Therapy; Female; Food quality; Fruits; Health care; Health disparities; Health Promotion - organization & administration; Humans; Income distribution; Inequality; Medical sciences; Michigan - epidemiology; Mortality; Neighborhoods; Obesity; Overweight; Prevention programs; Public health; Race; Racial differences; Racial discrimination; Research and Practice; Segregation; Socioeconomic Factors; Urban Population; Vegetables; White people; Women's Health; Womens health
• ISSN: 0090-0036; 1541-0048
• DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2004.048256

We examined a community-based participatory diabetes intervention to identify facilitators of and barriers to sustained community efforts to address social factors that contribute to health. We conducted a case study description and analysis of the Healthy Eating and Exercising to Reduce Diabetes project in the theoretical context of a conceptual model of social determinants of health. We identified several barriers to and facilitators of analysis of social determinants of a community-identified disease priority (in this case, diabetes). Barriers included prevailing conceptual models, which emphasize health behavioral and biomedical paradigms that exclude social determinants of health. Facilitating factors included (1) opportunities to link individual health concerns to social contexts and (2) availability of support from diverse partners with a range of complementary resources. Partnerships that offer community members tangible resources with which to manage existing health concerns and that integrate an analysis of social determinants of health can facilitate sustained engagement of community members and health professionals in multilevel efforts to address health disparities.