Study Aims to Tackle Social Determinants of Health Affecting Type 2 Diabetes Patients

Researchers from the University of Michigan and the University of Massachusetts are working on a funded study “to evaluate an intervention designed to identify, prioritize, and help address” social determinants of health-related diabetes complications.

Over 37 million Americans are affected by type 2 diabetes mellitus each year. Self-management guidelines encourage patients to “seek ongoing medical care, take prescribed medications as directed, follow a strict diabetes-friendly diet, and exercise regularly to keep the disease under control.” Regardless, nearly 8 million patients are admitted to the hospital yearly with serious diabetes complications.

Often, those complications are the result of “unmet health-related social needs, also known as social determinants of health, like inadequate housing, low income, limited availability of health food, insufficient access to healthcare, lack of social support, and low health literacy.”

The project being undertaken by these researchers “combines two innovative intervention components that were developed through prior NIH-funded projects including a comprehensive screening tool to efficiently capture and create a personalized profile of unmet social determinants of health-related needs for type 2 diabetes mellitus patients at risk of poor health outcomes, and an evidence-based patient navigation protocol…that uses a patient navigator to assess and prioritize unique social needs at the hospital bedside and provide post-discharge support over a 90-day care transition period to help patients gain access to the resources they need to stay healthy.”