Diabetes is a disease that greatly affects the African American community. Like many diseases, African Americans are more impacted by the disease than any other ethnicity.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health, “African American adults are 70 percent more likely than non-Hispanic White adults to have been diagnosed with diabetes by a physician.” They are also more likely to be hospitalized and even die from the disease than their White counterparts. But a program by the YMCA of Greater Pittsburgh is helping to prevent individuals, especially Black ones, from having to deal with this disease or its complications, which includes loss of sight, skin complications, neuropathy and even loss of toes or a foot.
The Diabetes Prevention Program of the YMCA of Greater Pittsburgh, instituted locally by the Y in 2013, is part of a national program supported by the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institute of Health. Since its inception in the greater Pittsburgh area, the program has been helping individuals who are at-risk for developing type 2 diabetes or have been diagnosed with pre-diabetes reduce their risk by 58 percent, increase their physical activity and lower their body mass.
“A lot of other programs fail because they are short lived. We have a year long program,” said Gretchen North, associate vice president of Healthy Living at the YMCA of Greater Pittsburgh. “The group support, weigh-ins, the accountability and the duration are key to this formula based on science. That’s why it’s been successful.”
The DPP gathers participants in a relaxed classroom setting where they work in small groups to learn how to incorporate healthier eating and moderate physical activity into their daily lives. The program includes 16 weekly and 8 monthly sessions, each for one-hour, that is led by a trained lifestyle coach.
North said participants are given manuals with information that addresses the necessary lifestyle changes, are privately weighed at the beginning of each class, and are asked to keep food and physical activity trackers, all to help them achieve the goal of decreasing their body weight by 7 percent and increasing their weekly physical activity to 150 minutes.
Tia Hugley, a certified CNA at West Penn Hospital, had visited her primary care physician and found out that her blood levels were up, she was at risk for developing diabetes and that she needed to do something to about it. A month later, through her employer, she heard about the Y’s Diabetes Prevention Program and decided to enroll. Since then she has lost 17 pounds and is no longer at-risk for developing diabetes.
“It (the program) has improved my life a great deal. I was able to meet new people, people that understand what is going on; to get and share information, and learn how to eat right, but still be able to do normal things that everyone else does, like have dessert, but in moderation,” Hugley said. “It let’s you know that you’re able to live life, but in a certain bracket. You can have a better, longer life if you do thing a little but healthier.”
Hugley said she passes the information that she has learned onto her loved ones.
To qualify for the program, individuals must be at least 18 years of age, overweight with a Body Mass Index greater than 25, and be at risk of developing type 2 diabetes or diagnosed with pre-diabetes. North said since it is a prevention program and the curriculum does not involve maintenance information, individuals already diagnosed with diabetes are not eligible.
Although the program is offered at various YMCA locations, North explained that it could be offered in any community-based setting, such as a workplace, church etc.
“This program is mobile, it does not need to be offered exclusively at a YMCA. We can bring it where the demand is,” she said.
Currently, there are sessions being offered at the Homewood Library and there has been one held at Central Baptist Church. North said sessions were even scheduled at the Hill House, but had to be re-scheduled twice due to low enrollment. “We want to be in underserved areas, but often times it’s hardest to get the word out or people to attend those classes,” she added. “We’re always enrolling people. We will respond to the demand.”
While it is not needed to enroll in the program, North said having health care providers refer their at-risk patients to the program or getting health plans and employers to cover the fee would be a great way to reach those in need.
By 2017, the YMCA plans to incorporate the Diabetes Prevention Program in 300 YMCAs across the country.
The program does cost a fee, but North said scholarships and subsidies are available.
How affordable the program was, Hugley said, is one of the reasons why she believes it works.
“It was exciting and helpful, and they should offer it (to more people). Some people do not just want to go to Planet Fitness, some people do not want to do Weight Watchers, Nutrisystem or Atkins; it’s just not affordable to real life people. People have bills…and don’t have the extra money,” she said. “We need something that’s really going to work and educate us to where we can continue to do it and pass it on to other people, and this is the program that allows you to do it.”
(To enroll or get more information, contact Gretchen North at 412-227-3820 or email gnorth@ymcapgh.org.)
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