Study targets diabetes in group

About 250 sought among Marshallese

SPRINGDALE -- Northwest Arkansas took a step forward Thursday in improving the health of the area's Marshallese population.

Researchers from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences met with about a dozen Marshallese pastors and leaders to ask for their help recruiting about 250 people from their community to take part in a diabetes management program study.

Study signup

For more information or to sign up for the study, email mritok@uams.edu, wibing@uams.edu or jrubonchutaro@uams.… or call (479) 713-8694, 8688 or 8685.

(Marshallese): Elane kwoj konan jela melele ko jet kin ekkatak in, jouj im e-mail e tok mritok@uams.edu, wibing@uams.edu ak jrubonchutaro@uams.…. Komaron bar tobar rein ilo (479) 713-8694, 8688 ak 8685.

UAMS grants

The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences received several grants over the past two years to research health issues in the Marshallese population.

• $2.99 million from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to address health disparities in the Hispanic and Marshallese communities in Benton and Washington counties

• $2.1 million from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute to identify how to improve diabetes self-management programs for the Marshallese community

• $194,200 from the Walmart Foundation to support operations of the UAMS North Street Clinic that opened last year to offer diabetes testing and treatment for Marshallese patients.

Source: Staff report

The group also learned the medical school is opening a Center for Pacific Islander Health in the area later this year.

The meeting was held at the downtown Springdale office of Carmen Chong Gum, consulate general in Arkansas for the Republic of the Marshall Islands and much of the discussion was in Marshallese.

The $2.1 million study is paid for by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute and will compare how a family centered diabetes education approach compares to traditional diabetes self-management education patient typically receive.

Pearl McElfish, director of research at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Northwest, said an estimated 10,000 Marshallese live in Northwest Arkansas, making the area home to the largest population of Marshallese in the continental United States.

The Marshall Islands is a country made up of two island chains of 29 atolls and five single islands in the North Pacific Ocean about halfway between Hawaii and Australia, according to the Central Intelligence Agency's World Factbook. Marshallese citizens may work and study in the U.S. without a visa because of U.S. nuclear testing on some of the atolls between 1947 and 1962.

Between 30 and 50 percent of Northwest Arkansas' Marshallese residents have Type 2 diabetes, a rate 400 percent higher than the general U.S. population, she said.

"We met about a year-and-a-half ago with you, the Marshallese community leaders, to discuss what issue to focus on and diabetes kept coming up," McElfish said.

Ray Clanry said he was ready to sign up 10 people right away, including his wife. He's pastor at a Springdale Marshallese church he said translates to Good News Church.

"I might not be able to do much, but I want to help," he said. "We are trying to educate one another."

Registration for the study is under way and it is set to begin June 15.

Sadie Kabua, a medical assistant at the Community Clinic, said people can control their diabetes by watching what they eat. She said she's been diabetic for 25 years and can keep her sugar at good levels when she follows her doctor's orders.

"It's also important that people come to meetings. We need to make our voices heard," she said.

Many in the Marshallese community don't have insurance or a family doctor, so the medical school is trying to fill part of that gap with a student-led clinic. The North Street Clinic opened in November on the school's Fayetteville campus.

These programs will eventually fall under the umbrella of the Center for Pacific Islander Health. University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences officials are still working out details for the center, but McElfish said it will be developed in Northwest Arkansas.

Nia Aitaoto, research scientist in the College of Public Health at the University of Iowa, attended Thursday's meeting in Springdale and is joining the medical school's staff July 1 to head the Center for Pacific Islander Health.

The center will divide time between doing research and spearheading community health programs for Pacific Islander populations including Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of Palau.

Aitaoto said it's possible to reduce the diabetic rate not just for the Marshallese, but for all Pacific Islanders. She's from Samoa.

"We hear diabetes and feel hopeless. We are proud Pacific Islanders," she told the group. "It is possible."

Christie Swanson can be reached by email at cswanson@nwadg.com or on Twitter @NWAChristie.

A Section on 04/24/2015

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