Shared Medical Visits for Spanish-speaking Patients With Type 2 Diabetes

Type 2 diabetes is an expanding epidemic, which is particularly pervasive in the Hispanic community. In 2014, the CDC reported that 21.9 million adults have been diagnosed with diabetes, a number which has nearly quadrupled since 1980. Diabetes is a particularly challenging chronic disease due to the need for self-management. This research study plans to explore how shared medical visits with Spanish-speaking patients with diabetes can improve their control of diabetes, develop self-management behaviors, and enhance overall perspective of having a chronic disease. The investigators will model this project after an ongoing with English speakers and they have demonstrated improvements in hemoglobin A1c levels and quality of life, and will now apply this model to Spanish-speaking patients. Eligibility and exclusion criteria are detailed in the brief summary. Eligible participants will be recruited for the study through use of phone call in Spanish, letter writing in Spanish, word of mouth, and direct referral from their providers throughout UNMC. Once the list of potential subjects is compiled, those patients will be contacted and the details of the study will be explained in Spanish. All the participating staff in the study speak Spanish. The participants, at any time, can withdraw from the study. Participants will receive education in diabetes health and lifestyle education. This will be a quantitative study using pre- and post-intervention measures to evaluate the outcomes of HgbA1c levels, scores on the validated 2-item and 9-item Patient Health Questionnaires (PHQ-2 and PHQ-9), and questionnaire which measures improvements in self-management behaviors. Researchers will to follow-up with the participants in the week following the visit to discuss lab results. At the end of the study, researcher will send a detailed letter to the patient's primary care provider regarding progress and management in shared medical visits.