Pilot of a diabetes primary prevention program in a hard-to-reach, low-income, immigrant Hispanic population.

An immigrant Hispanic population in the Texas-Mexico border region urgently requested assistance with diabetes. The project team implemented an exploratory pilot intervention to prevent type 2 diabetes in the general population through enhanced nutrition and physical activity. Social networks in low-income rural areas(colonias) participated in an adaptation of the Diabetes Empowerment Education Program. The program had a pre-post-test design with a comparison group. The intervention had a small but significant effect in lowering body mass index, the biological outcome variable. The process evaluation shows that the participants valued the pilot project and found it culturally and economically appropriate. This program was the first primary prevention program in diabetes to address a general population successfully. The study shows that low-income, rural Mexican American families will take ownership of a program that is participatory and tailored to their culture and economic situation.

"No somos iguales": the effect of household economic standing on women's energy intake in the Andes.

This article examines the relationship between women's food consumption and household economic standing in a small farming community in the southern Peruvian Andes. It is motivated by villagers' comments-"no somos iguales"-about economic inequality within the community and explores the nutritional consequences of this disparity. Analyses of energy intake, measured seasonally by the food-weighing technique, show that women in poorer households experience energy deprivation during the pre-harvest season but better-off women do not. During the rest of the year, women in both economic groups have statistically similar intakes of energy. Energy deprivation among poorer women is associated with a lack of money to purchase adequate amounts of commercial foods when the supply of local foods dwindles. The analyses indicate that in this agricultural community, being "cash poor" is a more sensitive predictor of nutritional risk among women than are landholdings. Despite the veneer of widespread poverty, this study supports villager views that households are not equal and contributes to our understanding of differences among rural Andean women.

Seasonal dietary stress in Peruvian children.

This article examines the seasonal variation in energy intake among young children in a fanning community in southern Peru. Caloric intakes among young children fall to their lowest annual level during the post-harvest season even though food and cash resources are at their highest levels. Among toddlers (1-3 years) the decline is statistically significant (p = 0.006). Their energy intake meets only 65.6 per cent of their predicted requirement during the post-harvest season. In contrast to the literature, dietary stress for young children is not greatest in the pre-harvest season. Also, household food availability does not accurately indicate dietary risk among young children in this community.