Topic: Diabetes among Minority Population

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction. 2

Research Questions. 5

Hypotheses For the Questions. 5

How the Research Questions will be answered. 6

Audience Characteristics. 6

Research Instrument to be Used. 7

How data Analysis will be Conducted. 8

Variables that Will be of Interest 9

Conclusion of the Research and Potential Findings. 9

References. 11

Introduction

Diabetes among minority population is an example of a pressing issue in the United States. It is estimated that 8% of deaths among the minority population is caused by diabetes. It is a chronic illness that affects the amount of sugar in blood as well as the production of insulin in the body. The minority population has been observed to be the most affected by diabetes conditions. For instance, African Americans constitute 40.5% of diabetes conditions in the United States (Ahn & Song, 2012). This has resulted into a reduction in the average life expectancy of African Americans to 66.1 years compared to 73.6 years for Caucasians.  The problem of diabetes condition among minority groups in the US has been compounded by increased incarceration, unemployment and low rates of college graduation. A report from American Diabetes Association indicated that, when compared with the general population, minority groups of Americans are highly affected by diabetes (Fisher et al. 2013). Most of those affected by the problem are aged 20 to 35 years. Those who are affected by the condition are also 1.6 times likely to die compared with their white counterparts. There has also been a double in the number of males affected by diabetes between 1980 and 2005. Of those infected with diabetes, 80% to 90% have been diagnosed with diabetes, thus an insight into overweight diagnosis can be significant in prevention of diabetes.

Previous studies also show that being overweight is a contributing factor to increased stress in the body in a number of ways such as the capacity of the body to regulate blood sugar levels and has the potential to contribute to resistance of the body to glucose (Hu & Malik, 2010). When an individual has been diagnosed with diabetes, there may be the need for additional insulin to ensure sugar absorption into the cells. In case an individual has not been diagnosed with diabetes, but has the risk of developing diabetes, the prolonged impacts of resistance to insulin resistance can be a contributing factor to the development of the disease. There has been the need for immediate attention and action to address health requirements of minority population such as in the context of prevention of diabetes and diabetes (Iqbal et al. 2010). There is the need to ensure preventive practices are implemented to specific gender among the population so that a myriad of issues affecting them can be overcome.

Research that has been done in this topic in Philadelphia shows that diabetes has contributed to a health crisis and currently 64% of adults experience diabetes while 57% of children suffer from the same condition.  There has been a triple in the number of diabetes conditions nationally in the past 20 years (Kluding et al. 2012).  The prevalence of diabetes in Philadelphia is well above the national goals and socio-economic differences also exist. The average cases of deaths in Philadelphia since 2000 are approximated to be 24,000. The main contributing factor has been poor diet and lack of involvement in physical activities. There is a low rate of consumption of fruits and vegetables in Philadelphia by 25% among children and 30% among adults (Malik et al. 2010). There has also been an increase in number of Philadelphians who consume fast foods by 35% since 2000. Another observation that has been observed in the study among most Philadelphians is the reduction in involvement in physical exercises by 26% since 2005 among children and 45% among adults. For instance, less than 50% of adults in Philadelphia exercise each week. While there are excellent infrastructures for healthy, working environments, planning activities have resulted into a shift in development activities to the outskirts of Philadelphia. Increased cases of crime have also resulted into unwillingness of Philadelphia residents to take part in outdoor physical activities. While increase in diabetes is contributed by various factors, most cases of diabetes in Philadelphia are attributed to increased caloric intake and the consumption of fast foods due to their inexpensive nature (Polonsky et al. 2005).

Another eating habit that has been common among Philadelphia population has been the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) (Ahn & Song, 2012). These are beverages that are non-alcoholic in nature and include: soda, sports drinks, sweetened water products and sweetened tea. The total amounts of soft drinks consumptions in Philadelphia are estimated to be 60 million gallons per day. Other studies have shown that there is an association between SSBs consumption and increase in diabetes (Sánchez-Villegas et al. 2012). When sugar is converted into liquid form, it has lower potential to cause obesity compared with sugar in other forms, consequently most people continue to consume products containing sweetened beverages from a number of sources. While there has been an increase in SSBs servings over the past 15 years, there have been efforts to create awareness about the effects of sugar sweetened products in contributing to obesity.

This study will provide additional insight into the present knowledge of diabetes in Philadelphia. For instance, it will enable understanding the relationship between consumption of fast foods and increase in diabetes conditions in Philadelphia (González, 2012). It will also create more insight in the relationship between increased involvement in physical exercises and incidence of diabetes among children. Another insight that will be created by this paper is the role of sugar-sweetened products in contributing to obesity. An action of referral to the affected patients will be made so that they can implement the actions to achieve personal recovery from the impacts of obesity.

Research Questions

The research questions that will be addressed by this study include the following:

1. Does increased consumption of fast foods increase the incidence of diabetes?
2. What is the effect of reduced participation in physical exercise on the incidence of diabetes?
3. What is the relationship between increased caloric intake and diabetes?
4. Explain the relationship between increased consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) and diabetes condition?

Hypotheses For the Questions

The following are the Null and alternative hypotheses that were developed for each research question.

Hypotheses for Research Question 1

H0: There is no relationship between increased consumption of fast foods and an increase in diabetes incidence

H1: Increased consumption of fast foods results into an increase incidence of diabetes

Hypotheses for Research Question 2

H0: Increase participation in physical exercises is not related to incidence of diabetes

H1:  increased participation in physical exercises is related to reduction in incidences of diabetes

Hypotheses for Research Question 3

H0: There is no relationship between increased caloric intake and the increase in diabetes incidences

H1: increased caloric intake is directly related to the increase in diabetes incidences

Hypotheses for Research Question 4

H0:  There is no relationship between increased consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and incidences of diabetes

H1: Increased consumption of sugar sweetened beverages results into an increase in incidences of diabetes.

How the Research Questions will be answered

The research questions will be answered by first selecting the respondents who will be asked to participate in the study. The respondents will be accessed by conducting a visit to health care facilities in Philadelphia and asking the professionals to participate in the study. They will be briefed about the purpose of the research and the manner in which the research questions need to be answered. The selected respondents will be provided with printed questions that they will be allowed adequate time to fill and send back the responses to the researcher.  The research questions will mainly focus on the knowledge of respondents regarding various forms of lifestyles and their relationship to diabetes among minority groups in Philadelphia in the United States. They will be asked to give their address such as telephone contacts to enable the researcher collect the responses individually from them. When all the responses have been collected, the responses will be kept in a database followed by preparation for data analysis.

Audience Characteristics

The audience will be those who work in the health institutions in Philadelphia.  They will be those who work in various positions in the health institutions such as doctors, nurses, physicians and therapists. The selection of the audience will be based on their experience with dealing with diabetes patients and enabling them overcome their conditions. They will be those aged 25 to 50 years with the focus on understanding the experiences their understanding of the status of diabetes in Philadelphia. Another characteristic of the audience to be used will be ethnicity. Those who will be selected to participate in this study will be those of African American origin or Hispanic origin. The purpose of selecting respondents of these ethnicities will be important in understanding their observations of cases of diabetes among African-American and Hispanic citizens in Philadelphia. In terms of education, respondents will be selected from those who have college education, bachelors’ degree, master’s degree and PhDs so that various views can be obtained regarding the research topic and achieving the research objectives. In terms of gender, respondents will be both male and female so that the research can be understood based on the perspectives of different genders. In order to get unbiased outcome during the study, the audience will include participants of other races provided they have the knowledge of current state of diabetes in Philadelphia and the relationship between the condition and various variables that will be investigated during the study.

Research Instrument to be Used

The research instrument to be used during the study will be a semi-structured interview which will be a set of designed questions that are as illustrated below:

1. What is your age?
2. What is your gender?
3. State your level of education
4. State your experience in the profession in which you work.

5. Does increased consumption of fast foods increase the incidence of diabetes?
6. What is the effect of reduced participation in physical exercise on the incidence of diabetes?
7. What is the relationship between increased caloric intake and diabetes?
8. Explain your answer above
9. Explain the relationship between increased consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) and diabetes condition?

1. What is the relationship between race and prevalence of diabetes in your institution?

How data Analysis will be Conducted

When the data has been collected and recorded, various methods of data analysis will be used to analyze the results so that the expected outcome can be understood and how they are related to one another. An example of data analysis method to be used is coding. This is the process where a search will be conducted to determine recurring themes, topics and ideas by use of computer software. Another data analysis method to be used is thematic analysis. This analysis will enable understanding of emerging themes, topics and ideas. Consequently, the research topic will be understood effectively and objectives of the research will be achieved.

Another method of data analysis to be conducted is correlation between variables during the study. During correlation analysis, the main focus of an analysis is to determine the extent to which the occurrence of one variable is affected by that of other variables. For instance, this study will investigate the effect of the occurrence of diabetes cases and increased consumption of foods that have high calorie content. Furthermore, this study will involve reliability and validity analyses. In reliability analysis, the goal of the researcher will be to understand the extent to which the data collected is repeatable. This is the level to which similar data will be obtained if the study is conducted by a different researcher. Reliability analysis will be determined by conducting test-retest process to determine the extent to which there is similarity of responses provided with the previous research. In validity analysis, the focus of the research will be to determine whether the data collected represents the actual responses provided by the respondents. In order to determine the validity of the responses, the researcher will conduct comparison of responses from various responses so that the extent to which they are similar can be understood.

Variables that Will be of Interest

The variables that will be of interest during the study include the following:

Independent Variable: This is a variable that is not affected by other variable. The independent variable will include: the amounts of fast foods consumed, amount of exercise participated in, amount of calories consumed, and amount of sugar-sweetened beverages consumed (SSBs). These variables will affect the dependent variable of the level of development of diabetes among patients. The choice of these variables has been made based on the observation that their uses determine the occurrence of diabetes in patients in one way or another. From the introduction, it was observed that one of the characteristics of people suffering from diabetes is their lack of participation in physical exercises or involvement in improper nutrition such as consumption of foods containing high calorie content, consumption of fast foods and increased use of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs). By focusing on them, it will be possible to get an insight regarding the state of diabetes among patients who suffer from the condition.

Conclusion of the Research and Potential Findings

This study provides a research on the status of diabetes in Philadelphia region in the United States. It provides an investigation of the current knowledge of diabetes condition in the Philadelphia such as the current publications on complications resulting from diabetes in Philadelphia. It also investigates the demographic characteristics of people who are most commonly affected by diabetes in the Philadelphia such as those of Black American and Hispanic origin. In the investigation of causes of diabetes, the paper illustrates some of the forms of lifestyles that have been common among those who are diagnosed with diabetes condition such as increased consumption of high calories products, increased consumption of fast foods and low level of participation in exercises. The research proposes a number of research questions and hypotheses to be used during the research. The hypotheses act as a guide to the solutions that the researcher expects during the research. Both null hypotheses and alternative hypotheses are provided. The paper illustrates the methods that will be followed when answering the research questions. It is found that the most suitable method used during the process will be structured interview that will be composed of questions which will be printed and issued to the respondents. This will be followed by giving the respondents an adequate amount of time so that they can fill and return the responses. In addition the paper provides the characteristics of audience that will be suitable during the research. It is found that the audience will be mainly professionals of Black American and Hispanic origin. The research instrument is also illustrated. This is a set of questions that the respondents will be asked in the semi-structured interview process. Various methods of data analysis to be used are also illustrated. Examples of methods of data analysis illustrated include: coding, thematic analysis, reliability analysis and correlation analysis.

From the study, it is expected that particular outcomes will be obtained based on previous study on diabetes conditions. For instance, it is expected that there will be a positive correlation between consumption of high calories foods and diabetes condition. It is also expected that there will be a positive correlation between diabetes condition and reduced participation in exercises. Another expected finding is that there will be a positive correlation between diabetes condition and ethnicity, where people of African American groups will be highly affected compared with Hispanics or white Americans. This is because, previous studies shows that increased complications of diabetes is common among African Americans compared with other races. The findings of this study will be important for stakeholders involved in the management of diabetes in Philadelphia because it will act as a guide into the actions that need to be taken by the department to control diabetes in the state. It will also act as a guide to educational strategies that need to be used to educate the residents of Philadelphia so that they can overcome the challenges resulting from diabetes conditions.

 

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