In your reading this week, you’ve learned a bit about diabetes.  You’ve learned about how an unhealthy diet can contribute to type 2 diabetes and about how a healthy diet and exercise can help treat type 2 diabetes.

For this discussion, I want you to think about diabetes at the community level, not just the individual level.  Diabetes is on the rise all across the U.S. and around the world.  A problem that is so complex and widespread must be addressed at a system level, not just by individuals.

Discussion Question:

1. Diabetes is one of the diseases that the CDC tracks.  They have statistics on the frequency of diabetes going back for decades.  You can access this information in a variety of accessible graphs and reports. GO TO LINK  (http://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/atlas/countydata/atlas.html)

Click on the link above and explore a bit.  I highly recommend the interactive atlas which shows frequency of diabetes by county.  (That’s where the image above came from.)

Then, come back here and report on any interesting or surprising discoveries.

2. Imagine you were just hired by your home county’s public health department to develop a program to combat type 2 diabetes. What do you think can and/or should be done? 

Be specific:  For example, don’t just say “education,” tell us what people need to learn.  And tell us how to do it.

Questions to consider:  What do people need to know?  What’s the best way to tell them?  How can you convince people to make better choices?  How can you make it easier for people to make better choices?