Hispanic Women With Type II Diabetes

Implementation of mobile web app (Glucose Buddy) for medication reminder and health education to increase treatment adherence among Hispanic women with type II diabetes
Outcome Synthesis
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Outcome Synthesis
Abstract
Type II diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is today an increasing and significant health problem. Hispanic-Americans are amongst the ethnic groups most at risk given that obesity is highly prevalent in Hispanics than in any other ethnic group. The problem of poor adherence to prescribed treatments is considerably complex. Adherence to therapy in patients who have T2DM is dependent on various variables, including variables that are specific to the provider, to the patient, and to the treatment. The proposed solution to improve adherence to diabetes medication among Hispanic women is the implementation of mobile web app for medication reminder and health education. Several studies carried out over the past few years contribute to the body of evidence that the use of mobile web apps actually help to increase medication adherence. Medication reminders and educational messages provided to patients using mobile phones have been shown to increase adherence to medication and to improve patient outcomes.
Statement of the Problem
Diabetes is understood as a group of illnesses that are characterized by high blood glucose levels caused by defects in the production of insulin, insulin action, or both. This medical condition could result in severe complications as well as premature death (Tiv et al., 2012). Even so, diabetic individuals can undertake the necessary steps to control this medical condition and reduce the likelihood of complications. Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) is the most prevalent type of diabetes in the United States and is mostly avoidable. In adults, T2DM is known to account for between 90%-95% of all the diagnosed cases of diabetes; the rest being adult-onset diabetes type 1 (Longhurst, 2014). In the year 2012, diabetes cases cost America about 245 billion USD; this sum is expected to go up with the rising numbers of diagnosed people. In the same year 2012, diabetes resulted in $69 billion in reduced productivity as well as $176 billion for direct medical expenses (Longhurst, 2014).
Researchers have reported that people of Hispanic ethnicity have a greater risk of developing T2DM compared to non-Hispanic whites. Among Hispanic women, the prevalence of total diabetes – undiagnosed and diagnosed – is about 16.9%. The prevalence increases substantially with age and reaches over 50% for Hispanic females by the time they are aged 70 years (Virginia, 2014). A lot of ethnic minorities in the United States have restricted access to health care owing to their lower socio-economic status. Diabetic Hispanic women face several barriers to the adherence to diabetes medication regimen. These barriers include the following: cost – Campos (2007) stated that roughly 60 percent of diabetic Hispanic adults have a yearly income of under $20,000 relative to about 28 percent of diabetic whites. Cost of medicines is a significant reason as to why some patients with diabetes decrease their frequency or dose of insulin therapy. Treatment cost contributes to the...