A University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences research team has been approved for nearly $2.1 million from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute to study how to improve diabetes self-management in the Marshallese community of northwest Arkansas.
Dr. Peter Kohler, vice chancellor of UAMS Northwest, will lead the research project with Dr. Peter Goulden and Pearl McElfish as co-principal investigators.
The study, which focus on bridging the gap between knowledge of effective diabetes self-management education and actual implementation of the knowledge among the Pacific Islander community, is being conducted in partnership with the Arkansas Coalition of Marshallese and the Gaps in Service to the Marshallese Task Force. The Marshallese community has a diabetes rate 400 percent higher than the U.S. general population.
Northwest Arkansas is home to the largest Marshallese population in the country.
“We hope to work closely with the Marshallese families to prevent, delay or moderate the complications of type 2 diabetes and thereby improve the health of this at-risk group,” Kohler said in a news release.
The UAMS study is one of 33 proposals selected by PCORI, an independent, nonprofit organization, from 325 applications.
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