Assessing and Cultivating Diabetes Prevention Practices of Adult English-as-a-Second-Language Instructors

Objective: To assess health education practices of instructors who teach adult English-as-a-Second-Language learners in California and develop a diabetes prevention curriculum for their use.

Methods: Adults with limited English proficiency are at high risk for developing diabetes and often are not be able to access health education messages delivered by health care providers. To address this need for diabetes prevention among immigrant populations, the California Diabetes Program has convened a task force of English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) instructors and experts to develop a diabetes prevention curriculum for use with adult English language learners. As part of its formative research, the task force has developed an online survey, to be administered in early 2010, to assess instructors’ health education practices and explore opportunities to incorporate diabetes prevention into their curricula.  

Results: The survey will address current practices related to the teaching of topics such as nutrition, physical activity, emotional well being, the U.S. medical care system, and the concept of health “risk”; degree of leeway instructors have to modify their curriculum; and instructors’ preferred methods for receiving curricular training. Results of the survey will form the basis for a diabetes prevention curriculum to be developed and implemented in at least five adult ESL programs across the state.

Conclusion: The high diabetes risk of immigrant and limited-English-proficient populations and inadequate culturally- and linguistically-competent healthcare services requires creative solutions for delivering diabetes prevention messages. Collaborating with ESL instructors to incorporate diabetes prevention into their English-language classes offers one avenue for providing health education outside clinical settings.