During a Monday afternoon session, three researchers will review the results and lessons learned from one of the largest and most comprehensive studies of the role of acculturation in diabetes development.
The two-hour symposium, Diabetes and Psychosocial Risk Factors in the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos, will begin at 4:30 p.m. in room W414.
The Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL) study involved 16,000 adults in the United States who where recruited between 2008 and 2011 at centers in Miami, New York, Chicago, and San Diego. Additional ancillary studies were conducted in subsets of the study population.
Carmen R. Isasi, MD, PhD
“HCHS/SOL is a landmark study of health in Latinos that has produced substantial findings related to diabetes prevention and control,” said Carmen R. Isasi, MD, PhD, Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology & Population Health at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. “ADA attendees should attend to find out more about diabetes prevention and control among the growing population of U.S. Latinos, and to learn about opportunities for collaboration with HCHS/SOL through the Latino Research Network of the New York Regional Center for Diabetes Translation Research.”
Dr. Isasi will review findings from the sociocultural ancillary study of HCHS/SOL related to cultural and psychosocial risk factors for type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome.
Neil Schneiderman, PhD, the James L. Knight Professor and Director of the Health Division in the Department of Psychology at the University of Miami, will discuss findings from the larger HCHS/SOL study related to diabetes awareness, treatment, glycemic control, and access to health insurance.
Alan M. Delamater, PhD
Alan M. Delamater, PhD, Professor of Pediatrics and Director of the Division of Clinical Psychology in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Miami, will review results from an ancillary study on the children of adults enrolled in the main study. Researchers recruited 1,477 children between December 2011 and March 2014.
“The study design gives us the opportunity to look at the children’s behaviors and functioning, and cardiometabolic risk factors in relation to their parents because we have that same data on the parents,” Dr. Delamater said. “In many ways, the dataset is unique. Many of the families are of low socioeconomic status, so it’s also a really important high-risk study sample, and it does kind of represent the future of America in terms of the changing demographics.”
In the ancillary youth study, 52 percent of the participants were overweight or obese, with 32 percent of the boys and 25 percent of the girls classified as obese. In addition, 13 percent of the boys and 5 percent of the girls had prediabetes. Throughout the study, boys had greater risk factors for diabetes than girls. The ancillary study participants were between 8 and 16 years of age.
Dr. Delamater said the researchers focused on the personal, social, cultural, and behavioral factors in the youth study group. The researchers found that active parents who eat well have healthier children, and also that parents participating in the main study who reported having significant stressors in their lives have children who where more likely to be obese.
“If the parents are taking better care of themselves in terms of their emotional health and their physical activity and weight, it’s a kind of a modeling effect,” Dr. Delamater said. “If I’m a parent and I’m modeling these healthy lifestyle behaviors, my kids are going to be much more likely to exhibit those same behaviors. But it’s also important to reinforce those behaviors. It’s both modeling and reinforcement.”
Researchers also found a high rate of disordered eating, with 20 percent of young participants who reported feeling out of control when they eat, and 50 percent who diet to control their weight. Dr. Delamater said the disordered eating data correlates with reports of depression, anxiety, and negative body image in the study group.
“We’re able to identify a lot of cultural and psychosocial factors that are predictive, and the bottom line is we can identify what we call modifiable factors,” Dr. Delamater said. “It’s hard to reduce obesity in kids once it’s been firmly established. Kids don’t get obese overnight. It’s happened over years and it will take time in the reverse.”
