- Primary Prevention – “Population-Based Approach”
Since not all residents of The Bronx community between the ages of 21 and 44 are employed, the population based screening approach can be employed by Gotham to reach out to these socio-demographics. This approach aims to reach out to the younger generation in the Bronx community aged 25-44 years who are at high risk of developing diabetes due to lifestyle practices, although currently undiagnosed. The age group between 25 and 44 years forms the largest and the fastest growing segment in the Bronx community. Without being targeted now and encouraged to foster a healthy life style, this population will develop diabetes in the near future. Appropriately, the capstone team’s program design aims to integrate this group of patient into the diabetes prevention program at Gotham as a proactive measure to prevent them from developing diabetes in the long run.
Furthermore, this age group in the Bronx community is more likely to be computer literate with access to the internet. They are also more likely to have a social media account such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube and are able to understand English. [You said earlier that access to computers for this group is limited – which is it?] Accordingly, the capstone team will reach out to this age group via use of HIT, social media and educational materials. The local coordinator will also be responsible for reaching out to this group. Since the current diabetes management program does not account for this group of patients, integrating our recommendation through the use of local coordinators to bring awareness to the youths in the community to participate in accessing knowledge via HIT at Gotham is a welcome development. [What about the large number of unemployed that you referred to?]
