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Newsmaker: NPR features telenovelas in Lawrence Latino diabetes project

UMass Chan diabetes prevention program reduced pre-diabetes indicators in at-risk Latino populations

  rosal_milagros 
  Milagros Rosal, PhD
   

A Latino USA segment on National Public Radio features Milagros Rosal, PhD, associate professor of medicine, discussing the telenovelas she designed as part of UMass Medical School’s Lawrence Latino Diabetes Prevention Project. The $2.6 million clinical trial, funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases in 2004, brought together an array of community groups in Lawrence to introduce weight control, nutrition and exercise programs to Lawrence Latinos who were at risk for developing type 2 diabetes.

The inexpensive, culturally sensitive diabetes prevention program reduced pre-diabetes indicators in a Latino population at risk for developing diabetes. Results of the three-year study, which were published in the American Journal of Public Health, were significantbecause they replicated results of similar studies that were carried out in more educated and higher-income populations and that were much more expensive to conduct.