Diabetes Prevention for African-Americans: a Scoping Review.

backgroundType 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is the most common form of diabetes and is preventable in many instances. African-Americans are disproportionately represented in T2DM statistics. The strategies in place to prevent disease development in this population warrant critical examination.

methodsA scoping review of literature was conducted to provide an overview of the largely inconsistent approach to African-American T2DM prevention research. Specific research questions included: (1) How are African-Americans treated in the existing T2DM literature? (1a) Are African-Americans primarily treated as a homogenous group in the literature? (1b) Has the literature addressed middle-class African-Americans? (2) Is the T2DM prevention literature focused on primary or secondary prevention? The review included articles published from 1985 to 2016, examining the methodology and approach toward African-Americans in each article.

resultsThe review yielded 653 unduplicated articles. Through title, abstract, and full-text screenings, 381 articles were excluded. Of the remaining articles only 37% were focused on the prevention of T2DM development, and only 22.7% described a participant education component. The majority of the studies were observational (n = 19). Only 53.5% included majority African-American participants. Samples ranged from 2 to 27,899 individuals, which were often treated as homogeneous groups in terms of income and/or education (62.3%).

conclusionThe approach to T2DM prevention in African-Americans is largely inconsistent, which may be contributing to stagnation in this area of research.