Lorraine Mongiello
New York Institute of Technology, USA
Title: Diabetes risk perception among multi-racial college students
Biography
Biography: Lorraine Mongiello
Abstract
Background: Although the rapid increase of type 2 diabetes is crossing all socioâ€economic groups, it is still most prevalent among minorities and the poor. Recent data suggest that non-Hispanic African-American (16%) and Mexican-American (15.7%) adults exhibit higher age-adjusted prevalence than non-hispanic white adults (8.8%) and Asian-Americans are 30-50% more likely to have diabetes than their white counterparts. It is unknown if at risk young adults recognize their increased likelihood of developing diabetes.
Methods: Diabetes risk knowledge, individual risk perception, health status and individual health behaviors were collected and examined from 1,579 multiracial urban college students. Students have little knowledge of diabetes risk factors; identifying less than three of the 10 most important factors. Significant variation exists in the understanding of risk among racial/ethnic groups; only 0.02% of Asian, 14.0% of Hispanic and 22.8% of black students recognized that their race increased their risk. Among those students reporting three or more known risk factors (n=541) only 39% perceived that they were at high risk.
Discussion: These under-estimators (students unaware of their high risk) scored lower on a diabetes knowledge test (P=0.03) than those who acknowledged their risk; indicating that the cause of under-estimating risk may be, at least, in part due to a lack of information about risk factors. Asian students may be unaware of their risk as Asians develop diabetes at a much lower or normal BMI than other groups.
Conclusion: There is a pressing need to heighten knowledge and perception of diabetes risk among young adults in all groups to decrease the future burden of diabetes.