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Implementation and evaluation of a web-based peer education training program for improved self-management of diabetes among African American community members: Implications of a feasibility study
DISSERTATION

, Teachers College, Columbia University, United States

Teachers College, Columbia University . Awarded

Abstract

The diabetes epidemic impacting the African American community demands urgent and appropriate responses. One response involves the National Diabetes Education Program (NDEP), as a joint effort of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health—thereby providing a curriculum for disseminating diabetes self-management education to the African American community. The principal investigator has used the NDEP curriculum in training two cohorts of peer educators in a classroom setting in Brooklyn, New York, in order to begin to create the kind of dissemination of information on diabetes self-management that is vital at this time of the epidemic. Toward the goal of wider dissemination, this dissertation reflects an effort to take the NDEP curriculum and deliver the essential information via a series of 13 videos for use in an envisioned online diabetes self-management peer education training program. While the 13 videos ranged in length from a little less than two minutes to just under 8 minutes, they were seen as capturing the essential information, while some in-person classroom elements, such as frequent use of role plays to increase participants' self-efficacy, were missing. The 13 videos became the core of an envisioned 6-week, two-session-per-week, online training program. However, the pilot of the online training suffered from poor recruitment, massive drop-out, and lack of online homework completion, while suffering from technical difficulties involving slow and inconsistent loading of videos hosted via YouTube. These problems necessitated an online program evaluation by diabetics and professionals to further determine feasibility of online training. The program evaluation involved a new online website venue where videos were hosted and loaded with less difficulty, but some ongoing technical problems persisted. Program evaluators generally rated the video-based training in the very good range when rating it across twenty-one dimensions; they identified program strengths, weaknesses, and offered recommendations for improvement. Themes and overarching categories serving to organize themes are presented, given an analysis of a large body of data that captured the voices of the 25 program evaluators. Implications for a future online diabetes self-management peer education training program are discussed.

Citation

Murray Bachmann, R. Implementation and evaluation of a web-based peer education training program for improved self-management of diabetes among African American community members: Implications of a feasibility study. Ph.D. thesis, Teachers College, Columbia University. Retrieved March 28, 2024 from .

This record was imported from ProQuest on October 23, 2013. [Original Record]

Citation reproduced with permission of ProQuest LLC.

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