Special Diabetes Program for Indians

The Special Diabetes Program for Indians is a grant program that provides funding for diabetes treatment and prevention services at 399 Indian Health Service, Tribal, and Urban Indian health programs in all 12 Indian Health Service areas. The program was developed to fight the growing epidemic of diabetes among Native Americans and Alaska Natives. The program consists of community-directed diabetes programs, demonstration projects, and diabetes data infrastructure projects. The Diabetes Prevention Demonstration Project implements the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) curriculum to educate individuals with pre-diabetes about weight loss and lifestyle changes to prevent the onset of diabetes. The Healthy Heart Demonstration Project implements clinical team-based case management to treat risk factors for cardiovascular disease among individuals with diabetes.

The goal of the Special Diabetes Program for Indians is to provide diabetes education and services to Native Americans and Alaska Natives.

The Special Diabetes Program for Indians provides $150 million in funding annually to 399 programs in 35 states. The program has 66 Demonstration Projects to educate individuals about diabetes prevention and cardiovascular disease risk reduction. In the first decade of the program mean blood sugar levels in American Indians and Alaska Natives dropped 13%, mean LDL cholesterol levels dropped 17%, and protein in the urine (a sign of kidney dysfunction) dropped 33%. In 2006, 99% of programs were tracking diabetes patients through registries. Most programs offer type 2 diabetes prevention programs (82%), weight management programs for youth (72%), weight management programs for adults (84%), nutrition services for adults (96%), nutrition services for youth (94%), community walking or running programs (92%), community exercise classes (79%), and diabetes education activities (96%). Programs also use traditional American Indian and Alaskan Native approaches to provide diabetes education, offer group support, and strengthen cultural ties.