In the Navajo area, 1 in 5 Native Americans has diabetes, and about 75,000 have prediabetes. That is the impetus for IHS’s new campaign, launched at the Northern Navajo Medical Center, to raise awareness and knowledge of prediabetes—and to let people know it can be reversed.
The “Do I Have Prediabetes?” campaign by the Shiprock Health Promotion Program is intended to help people assess their risk and reverse prediabetes before their blood sugar level is high enough to be type 2 diabetes. The program builds on the groundwork of a 2016 CDC national prediabetes awareness campaign. Materials include posters, an infographic that depicts the risk factors, roadside billboards, and a video for waiting rooms.
The IHS has already made progress against at least 1 diabetes-related issue: kidney failure. Through the Special Diabetes Program for Indians, innovative evidence-based interventions helped reduce kidney failure from diabetes among Native American adults by 54% between 1996 and 2013. Kidney failure from diabetes in Native Americans was the highest of any ethnic group but now has dropped the fastest. The Shiprock program will continue through early 2018.