Adapting a cooking, food budgeting and nutrition intervention for a rural community of American Indians with type 2 diabetes in the North-Central United States.

American Indian (AI) communities experience persistent diabetes-related disparities, yet few nutrition interventions are designed for AI with type 2 diabetes or address socio-contextual barriers to healthy eating. We describe our process of adapting the evidence-based Cooking Matters® program for use by AI adults with type 2 diabetes in a rural and resource-limited setting in the North-Central United States. We conducted three focus groups with AI adults with diabetes to (i) identify Cooking Matters® adaptations and (ii) gather feedback on appropriateness of the adapted intervention using Barrera and Castro's cultural adaptation framework. Transcripts were coded using an inductive, constant comparison approach. Queries of codes were reviewed to identify themes. Contextual considerations included limited access to grocery stores and transportation barriers, reliance on government food assistance and the intergenerational burden of diabetes. Adaptations to content and delivery included incorporating traditional and locally available foods; appealing to children or others in multigenerational households and prioritizing visual over written content. Our use of Barrera and Castro's framework adds rigor and structure to the cultural adaptation process and increases the likelihood of future intervention success. Other researchers may benefit from using this framework to guide the adaptation of evidence-based interventions in AI communities.

Cooking for Health: a healthy food budgeting, purchasing, and cooking skills randomized controlled trial to improve diet among American Indians with type 2 diabetes.

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of poor diet quality and type 2 diabetes are exceedingly high in many rural American Indian (AI) communities. Because of limited resources and infrastructure in some communities, implementation of interventions to promote a healthy diet is challenging-which may exacerbate health disparities by region (urban/rural) and ethnicity (AIs/other populations). It is critical to adapt existing evidence-based healthy food budgeting, purchasing, and cooking programs to be relevant to underserved populations with a high burden of diabetes and related complications. The Cooking for Health Study will work in partnership with an AI community in South Dakota to develop a culturally-adapted 12-month distance-learning-based healthy food budgeting, purchasing, and cooking intervention to improve diet among AI adults with type 2 diabetes. METHODS: The study will enroll 165 AIs with physician-diagnosed type 2 diabetes who reside on the reservation. Participants will be randomized to an intervention or control arm. The intervention arm will receive a 12-month distance-learning curriculum adapted from Cooking Matters® that focuses on healthy food budgeting, purchasing, and cooking skills. In-person assessments at baseline, month 6 and month 12 will include completion of the Nutrition Assessment Shared Resources Food Frequency Questionnaire and a survey to assess frequency of healthy and unhealthy food purchases. Primary outcomes of interest are: (1) change in self-reported intake of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs); and (2) change in the frequency of healthy and unhealthy food purchases. Secondary outcomes include: (1) change in self-reported food budgeting skills; (2) change in self-reported cooking skills; and (3) a mixed-methods process evaluation to assess intervention reach, fidelity, satisfaction, and dose delivered/received. DISCUSSION: Targeted and sustainable interventions are needed to promote optimal health in rural AI communities. If effective, this intervention will reduce intake of SSBs and the purchase of unhealthy foods; increase the purchase of healthy foods; and improve healthy food budgeting and cooking skills among AIs with type 2 diabetes - a population at high risk of poor health outcomes. This work will help inform future health promotion efforts in resource-limited settings. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This study was registered on ClinicalTrials.gov on October 9, 2018 with Identifier NCT03699709 .

Developing the Tribal Resource Guide and the Poverty and Culture Training: The We RISE (Raising Income, Supporting Education) Study.

The We RISE Study aimed to support young American Indian mothers on a tribal reservation by addressing social determinants of health at an individual and community-wide level. To address community-based barriers, the study developed the Tribal Resource Guide, a comprehensive list of available resources that was created through partnerships with community programs and staff. In addition to the guide, the study also developed the Poverty and Culture Training in order to train program staff at numerous community programs to better understand and serve lower socioeconomic and/or Native clients. The two projects facilitated collaboration between community programs and provided tools for programs to address barriers and ultimately better serve their target audience. Despite challenges, the transdisciplinary approach used with the local community maximized potential for success. This process and model could be duplicated in communities with similar demographics, resources, and barriers.

Availability and Cost of Healthy Foods in a Large American Indian Community in the North-Central United States.

To understand the local food environment in a rural American Indian community, we assessed the availability and price of healthy foods offered at all stores (n = 27) within a 90-mile radius of the town center of a large American Indian reservation. Stores were classified by type, and availability and cost of foods were measured using the Nutrition Environment Measures Survey in Stores (January-February 2016). Healthy foods were available at most grocery stores (>97%), although the price of foods varied considerably among stores. Having quantified the availability and cost of food, efforts must focus on understanding other structural and contextual factors that influence diet in this community.