A health belief study of the African Caribbean American population age 35--85 years in an urban New York City community, about the type 2 diabetes mellitus disease

The purpose of this research was to gain insight into the health beliefs and practices in self-management regarding type 2 diabetes within a population residing in an urban community located in NYC. The problem that inspired this study was the limited knowledge about the population and a lack of study regarding the health beliefs and practices of the population in this urban community. The research questions examined the barriers that contributed to the participants of the study not being compliant with the guidelines in applying proper self-management. The results of the research identified four specific categories: negligence of self-care (NSC), cultural commitment (CC), inadequate knowledge (IK) and difficulty to be proactive (DP). A significant finding from the analysis of the categories is that there needs to be predictability regarding the participants in an established system. The population from the urban community in New York City should then be guided through creating structured education and empowerment with in depth cultural sensitivity insight planning in order to establish realistic goals that will complement proper diabetic self-management. Furthermore, there are barriers encountered by the population in the area of social support; this area should be addressed when consideration is given to eradicating foundation barriers to proper self-care. Interventions that incorporate populations' health beliefs and practices will help to shape diabetic programs that will improve the outcome of diabetic self-management.