| |
Partners in Wellness: A Collaborative Program to Document and Reduce Risks for Hypertension and Diabetes
W. Timothy Garvey, MD
College of Medicine
|
| |
|
Partners in Wellness is
a collaborative project with the Medical University of South Carolina
(MUSC) and the state’s six Historically Black Colleges and
Universities (HBCUs) that was designed to document and reduce the
risks for diabetes and hypertension through teaching, research and
community service. The project had the following initial aims:
- To develop a course on diabetes and hypertension that is taught
on each of the six HBCU campuses
- To screen a minimum of 500 students to determine their risk
for diabetes and/or hypertension
- To study the causes and
risk factors for diabetes/hypertension in African American college-aged
students
- To assist in the development of a model wellness center on one
of the HBCUs campuses
With Duke Endowment support,
we have added the production of a "how to" training manual
for others who are interested in replicating the project as a new
goal. |
| |
In less than three years,
the Partners in Wellness course has been integrated into each of the
six SC HBCU campuses reaching more than 260 students, exceeding the
original three-year goal of 150 by more than 110 students. We are
currently working with three institutions (Benedict College, Voorhees
College and Allen University) to have the course fully integrated
into their curriculums for science and health-based majors. Our course
is part of the core curriculum of a new undergraduate major in public
health that is being developed by Benedict College. 228 African American
students have been screened for diabetes and hypertension risks at
four on-campus screenings at three institutions (Claflin, SC State
and Morris). Unanticipated requirements in the approval processes
of MUSC and individual HBCU Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) delayed
the initiation of the screenings, but we have streamlined processes,
obtained approval from each campus and screened 127 students last
semester alone. We expect to increase this level of screening, as
we will be on three campuses each semester beginning this coming Fall
and anticipate reaching our screening goal by the end of the 2001-2002
academic year. We have learned that Partners in Wellness is a very
special program that has the ability to effectively reach African
Americans in a culturally competent manner to assist in:
- Changing individual health risk behaviors.
- Increasing the number of students that pursue health as a career
in South Carolina
.
- Helping to change the culture of the Medical University of
South Carolina, who is tasked with educating future generations
of minority health professionals.
|
|
