A south-west Houston neighbourhood witnesses a rise in diabetes cases among Hispanic residents, prompting a local non-profit to pioneer a Spanish-language prevention programme that combines educational classes, exercise, and peer support to combat the epidemic.
In a south-west Houston neighbourhood where diabetes has become an everyday concern, a local non-profit is trying to blunt the impact of a disease that hits Hispanic families especially hard. Gulfton Home Community is running a Spanish-language version of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention’s Diabetes Prevention Programme, pairing classes with community health workers, exercise sessions and online peer support.
The initiative, called “Chau Diabetes”, was launched last year and now has more than 100 people taking part in person, according to the group’s leaders. Osvaldo López, the organisation’s chief health officer, said the programme was designed for a community in which many residents face language barriers as well as health risks linked to weight, diet and limited physical activity. He said schools are already seeing the effects among children, with principals and nurses reporting prediabetes in pupils as young as six or seven.
Virginia Córdova, Gulfton Home Community’s director of operations, said mothers and children often attend the Zumba sessions together and are also being taught how to adjust family meals to make them healthier. She said participants are losing weight, feeling better and seeing improvements in their A1C levels, the blood test used to measure average blood sugar over time.
The work comes against a wider backdrop of uneven diabetes outcomes in Texas and across the United States. Public News Service reported that more than 16% of Hispanics in Texas have been diagnosed with diabetes, above the national average, while the CDC says the disease affects more than 30 million people in the US and is more common among Hispanic adults than among the wider population. The federal agency’s prevention programme, which focuses on healthier eating, more exercise and weight loss, is intended to help people at risk of type 2 diabetes delay or avoid the disease altogether. López said the Gulfton effort is also meant to address the social and environmental pressures that shape health, from inactivity to other conditions linked with obesity, including high blood pressure and some cancers.
Disclaimer: This content is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical judgment, advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
