The African-American Health Improvement Partnership is a Community-Based Participatory Research Project that will test the effectiveness of an integrated educational, behavioral, and psychosocial intervention to achieve a 10% reduction in mean HbA1c scores among 300 economically diverse African Americans, ages 18 and older, who have physician-diagnosed type 2 diabetes. The intervention aims to bring about this reduction primarily by effecting improvements in three hypothesized causal pathways: (a) access to medical supplies and treatment and receipt of quality medical care, (b) diabetes-specific social support from peers and community health educators, and (c) professional and peer support to move towards a healthy body weight. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) will be the primary analytic tool to evaluate the degree to which desired changes in HbA1c correspond to desired changes in variables compromising these three pathways. Findings will be translated into best practices through collaboration with community partners and widely disseminated to both the research and practice communities.
