FAIR HAVEN COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTER

The findings of the March 2007 Community Health Data Scan for Connecticut commissioned by the Connecticut Health Foundation (CT Health) were disturbing. Among them:  

• After adjusting for age difference in populations, African-Americans living in Connecticut are three times more likely to die from diabetes-related conditions than whites
• The rate of diabetes-related deaths in Latinos is twice that of whites

To help address this racial and ethnic health disparity, the foundation awarded grants to four federally qualified health centers.  One of these was a $399,806 two-year grant in 2007 to the Fair Haven Community Health Center, which is taking a unique, family-centered approach to preventing diabetes among at-risk Latina women in its vibrant New Haven neighborhood.

Initially, the center used its patient registry to identify and reach out to Latinas with risk factors for diabetes, who had not been diagnosed or tested.  "Foundation funding has helped us expand our electronic patient registry to confirm what we knew in our hearts," says Anne Camp, M.D., project director.  "We have a significant number of obese patients at risk for diabetes."

At the start of the CT Health-funded initiative, more than 1,000 Latina women were identified as being at risk, 300 of whom have received oral glucose tolerance tests.  These measure the body's ability to use glucose - the body's main source of energy.  An astonishing 40 percent - or 120 of the women screened - had pre-diabetes.  Because of the grant, diabetes prevention is a priority among center patients and staff, as demonstrated by a 570 percent increase in identification and outreach to high-risk patients.

Fair Haven's Erin Ruppe, APRN, is confident that a 10-week, family-centered lifestyle intervention program will make a difference in the health of these women.  "Our intervention is based on a National Institutes of Health (NIH) program, which showed it is more effective to lose an average of 15 pounds and exercise regularly to prevent or delay type 2 diabetes than it is to use medication or usual care." 

"The program is already showing success," notes Camp.  To date, participants have lost an average of seven pounds, reducing the risk of developing diabetes by 33 percent.

"We need to grow this program to make it available to everyone who needs it," adds Camp.

Unlike the NIH model, the Fair Haven initiative is a group program, all instruction is in Spanish and exercise classes include moms - and their children.  "We believe it is very important to create a new model through these women," says Ruppe.  "Children need what their moms need."

UPDATE: January 2009
The program has received additional support through a four-year Donaghue Research Leadership grant with Dr. William Tamborlane at the Yale Center for Clinical Investigation.  The ongoing work with Tamborlane, whose expertise is in diabetes and obesity, not only enables the program to continue, but also to expand and engage in more rigorous testing.

www.fhchc.org