A mobile program helping rural Hispanic adults make healthful choices to prevent diabetes
Disparities in diabetes risk, prevalence, and outcomes disproportionately burden Hispanic populations. Hispanics are the largest racial/ethnic minority group in the U.S. and are almost twice as likely than non-Hispanic White adults to be diagnosed with diabetes (12.1% for Hispanics v. 7.4% for non-Hispanic Whites). Even greater disparities can be seen among rural Hispanic adults. This project will create STEPS, a mobile based diabetes prevention program for rural Hispanic adults. The primary goal of STEPS is to reduce diabetes risk of participants through weight loss from healthy eating and increased physical activity. This goal will be achieved by providing users with the knowledge, skills, and motivation necessary to understand diabetes, the associated risks, and prevention behaviors (e.g. eating healthier foods, increasing physical activity, and reducing daily stress). To test the feasibility of STEPS, we will recruit 32 rural Hispanic adults from a federally qualified health center in South Texas to participate in a pilot test.