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July 28, 2005 NDSU Extension Service Offers Diabetes Education The North Dakota State University Extension Service is offering a pilot nutrition education program for people with diabetes and their families at four locations later this year. Extension agents will team up with a local health-care professional, such as a dietitian, nurse or certified diabetes educator, to teach the classes. The curriculum provides basic nutrition education that diabetics need to better manage their disease. A discussion of healthy food preparation methods, including demonstrations and tasting samples, will be an integral part of the education. Participants also will receive some regional recipes. The program will consist of four weekly 2 1/2-hour sessions and a follow-up class three months later. The sessions are scheduled to start in Carrington on Aug. 17, Wahpeton and Park River on Sept. 13 and Grand Forks on Sept. 29. The NDSU Extension Service adapted the program, called Dining with Diabetes: North Dakota Style, from a successful program that the West Virginia University Extension Service developed in 1998. West Virginia University Extension staff have delivered their program more than 200 times to nearly 5,000 participants. Jane Edwards, the NDSU Extension nutrition and health specialist who is coordinating the North Dakota program, estimates it will attract about 30 diabetics and their families at each site. She says that providing a program like this is important because the prevalence of diabetes is rising in North Dakota, from 3.6 percent in 1994 to 6.2 percent in 2003. That is a 72 percent increase. Currently, more than 28,000 adults in North Dakota have the disease. “Diabetes and its complications, including heart disease, stroke, loss of vision, kidney failure and amputation, cause a large, but preventable, burden of illness and death among people in North Dakota,” she adds. People 55 and older are about seven times more likely to develop diabetes, according to Edwards. About 2 percent of people under age 55 have the disease, while 14 percent of those over age 55 have it. American Indians in North Dakota also run a higher risk of developing the disease, she says. About 11 percent were diagnosed with it from 1996 to 2002. Diabetes especially can be a problem in rural North Dakota because diabetics may not have access to nutrition education in their area, she says. Those areas may lack qualified medical personnel or the medical personnel may not have the time to present educational programs. The Dakota Medical Foundation and North Dakota Health Department’s diabetes prevention and control unit are providing some of the funding for the program. For more information or to preregister, contact:
### Source:
Jane Edwards, (701) 231-7478, jedwards@ndsuext.nodak.edu |
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North Dakota State University |
