Baseline Assessment for a Multi‐institutional Diabetes Prevention Program for First Nations

Abstract

Diabetes has reached epidemic proportions in First Nations but there is limited information on physical activity, food and psychosocial risk factors, especially in remote communities. A baseline survey of main food preparers and shoppers (n=149 randomly selected household, remote n=76, semi-remote n=73) on seven reserves was conducted to assess physical activity and food behaviors and related psychosocial factors using multi-question scales. Respondents on remote reserves were more likely to have less education (>12 years: 39.47% vs. 62.96%, p=0.008) and come from larger households (mean household members: 4.28 vs. 3.77, p=0.107). Related to this, respondents on remote reserves had lower physical activity and food knowledge scores (2.9 vs. 3.6, p=0.022) and lower outcome expectations for related behaviors (4.04 vs. 4.33, p=0.008). These baseline findings are being used to evaluate a multi-institutional trial in the communities to prevent diabetes. This work was supported by the American Diabetes Association and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.