Solutions for Equitable Diabetes Prevention and Management - Los Angeles County, home to more than 9.8 million residents, is designated as a “high need” county by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention due to its high burden of diabetes and social vulnerability. The prevalence of total (diagnosed and undiagnosed) diabetes in Los Angeles County among non-Hispanic African American/Black (17.9%), Hispanic/Latino (14.9%), Asian (8.2%), and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander (29.9%) populations, along with residents living below the Federal Poverty Line (16.7%), is disproportionately higher than among non-Hispanic White (6.4%) and higher income residents. In total, more than 1 million residents in Los Angeles County from these populations live with diabetes. To address this, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health’s Division of Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention proposes to implement the project, Solutions for Equitable Diabetes Prevention and Management (SEDPM). SEDPM will use a health equity lens to implement diabetes prevention, management, and support strategies to reduce disparities in diabetes and prediabetes for the following priority populations in the county: African American/Black, Hispanic/Latino, Asian (Asian Indian, Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese), Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islanders, and groups with low socioeconomic status. This project will leverage the work and momentum of the DP14-1422, Chronic Disease Prevention Strategy in Los Angeles (CDPS) and DP18-1817, The Chronic Disease Prevention & Management Strategy: Innovative Solutions for Healthier Communities (CDPMS) initiatives to further refine, scale, and support the existing infrastructure for diabetes prevention and management in Los Angeles County. SEDPM will partner with community-based organizations (CBOs), collaboratives/coalitions of these CBOs, and other key stakeholders with extensive experience engaging, supporting, and collaborating with our priority populations. Key partners will include: the Los Angeles County Diabetes Coalition, Diabetes Care Partners, University of Southern California Alfred E. Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences (including the School’s California Right Meds Collaborative), Visión y Compromiso (including its Network of Promotores and Community Health Workers), and the Community Clinic Association of Los Angeles County. One of SEDPM’s goals will be to account for social determinants of health when tailoring and increasing access to evidence-based diabetes prevention and management programs and services for populations with the greatest burden of diabetes. These evidence-based programs and services will include the Diabetes Self-Management Education and Support (DSMES) and complementary diabetes support services for people with diabetes, and the National Diabetes Prevention Program (National DPP) and the Medicare Diabetes Prevention Program (MDPP) for people with prediabetes. SEDPM intends to expand the reach of culturally sensitive programming by increasing the number of these programs and services in the county, and by involving various provider types including pharmacists and community health workers. SEDPM will accomplish these goals by simultaneously and synergistically implementing strategies 1, 5, 9, 12, and 13 outlined in Component B of CDC-RFA-DP-23-0020 (A Strategic Approach to Advancing Health Equity for Priority Populations with or at Risk for Diabetes). By the end of this 5-year project, these cross-cutting strategies should result in increased enrollment and retention of underserved populations in culturally sensitive and evidence-based diabetes services and a reduction in diabetes risk and improved diabetes management for these priority populations in Los Angeles County, with a reach >350,000 people.
